Can your fate ever change?
by Lans13
Summary: My first AU. The saiyans believed Bradock and prevented Freeza from destroying their home planet. Yet it's not a happy ending as the tyrant himself stayed alive and a war broke out between the saiyans and his army. With the king dead, Vegeta was crowned as King. Goku was sent to Earth as planned, but one day Radditz will come for him, forcing him to return. What will happen now? :)
1. Chapter 1

**It's my first AU story. A „what if" story. I'm paying with the idea what would have happened if the saiyans believe Bradock. How would it influence history? I have no idea where this story will lead though :) This is just a short chapter, to put everything in perspective.**

Prologue

Bardock run back to the palace and stormed into the dining room, where some of the fighters were currently having lunch. He tried to explain to them about his visions regarding Freeza, but they all laughed at him, thinking that he went crazy. He was on the verge to go to Freeza's ship alone, when one of the younger saiyans stepped for and asked:

"What if he is right? What if Freeza is indeed planning to kill us?"

Bardock looked at the man, he was only 18 years old, but one of the trusted members of the King's council. He had short spiky hair and a strong built, even for saiyan measure.

"Karris!" Bardock called out his name, feeling extremely grateful for him.

The young warrior looked at Bardock, the looked back at the rest of the saiyans.

"I already had the feeling that Freeza might be afraid of us."

"Why would he be afraid? He is way stronger than any of us!" One of the saiyans asked.

"True, he is stronger than any of us individually. Yet, I'm not sure if we wanted to take him, we would loose. I mean all of us against him!"

There was some discussion among the saiyans, until one of them, a woman named Toma asked:

"What do you want us to do, Bardock?"

"Come with me, let's face Freeza together!"

Heading his bold reply they began to discuss it again, when suddenly an another warrior asked:

"Where is the king?"

Everybody looked around, expecting him to be there, but he was nowhere to be found.

"I saw him flying towards Freeza's ship an hour ago." A woman answered. "I thought they had something to discuss.

"He should be back by now!" Karris called.

The saiyans became more and more nervous as the conversation drag on and finally most of them decided to follow Bardock. They were just in time to see Freeza's ship facing their planet and there was some strange ling coming from that direction. They flew over, just to face Freeza's soldiers. This time though Bardock wasn't alone and they managed to reach Freeza, before he had a chance to make the energy ball bigger.

"What the hell?" Freeza asked as he realised that at least 50 saiyans were floating around his ship.

"I know about your plan and we won't let you destroy our planet!" Bardock called, and threw an energy ball towards him.

Dodoria jumped forward and deflected it, then all hell came loose and additional soldiers left Freeza's ship. During that time more saiyans heard a news about Bardock's vision and about the small troop who left to face Freeza and more and more saiyans followed them. It was a terrible fight and both sides lost many fighters. When Freeza saw that a bunch of saiyans killed Dodoria and an another group seemed to be win against Zarbon, he decided to leave. He run several scenarios in his head and truth was; he might have been able to take them, even now. On the other hand the saiyans got more and more reinforcement from their planet as the news spread. He decided not to risk it now. Sure, they were a threat, but it wasn't an immediate treat yet. He can come back with a bigger army and take them later. As he gave the order to retreat and left the orbit of the planet, he caught a glimpse of a spaceship leaving the orbit as well. It had only one passenger, a saiyan baby called Kakarott.

It took weeks until some kind of order was re-established on Planet Vegeta. Even though they won the fight, the war wasn't over yet. They were well aware that Freeza will come back one day. Also, they had an another issue; King Vegeta was dead, Freeza killed him, before he was trying to blow up their planet. When Prince Vegeta came back who was on a mission with Nappa, he was crowned as King at the age of 5. Some of the saiyans wanted a new king, they wanted Bardock to rule, but he explained to them, that he was not interested in politics.

"I'm just a warrior and even from that a low level one. Also, I pledged my alliance to the king and to the prince; I want Prince Vegeta to be our next king."

Even though Bardock refused to take the thrown, he quickly raised to the rank of the elite fighter and he became the member of the King's guards. It also meant that Radditz gained a higher rank and he was sent to more serious missions. Though it seemed like he has not such a high potential as Bardock. Goku, known as Kakarott was forgotten for the time being, as everybody was busy preparing for the day when Freeza will be back to take his revenge.


	2. Chapter 2

**I will try to keep them in character, while changing history also will cause some changes in their personalities.**

**I'm planning to update the story at least once a week, but I don't think I can update it at a peace I did with my previous story. We will see :)**

Goku couldn't believe that he was on his home planet. Everything happened so fast that he had no time so far to think about what exact steps lead him there. He defeated Piccolo a year ago and Gohan was just born and now he finally knew why he was somewhat different from normal people. He learned that he belonged to a warrior race called the saiyans. Radditz came to Earth a months ago with 5 other saiyans and they invaded the whole planet. They were just too powerful for him to kill them, even with Piccolo's help. Almost everybody was dead, who he knew, within the first 2 days of the invasion. Radditz spared his life and also spared Gohan's and Chichi's since they were relatives. Goku was in a coma for 2 weeks after he failed to defeat them and he when he woke up he was already on Planet Vegeta. As he looked around in the small room, he had no idea what to do. He lived in this room, well, mostly just slept there as otherwise he was always out among the saiyans. The room had only a bed and a small closet, which contained similar clothing to the ones of Freeza's soldiers. The wall was white and the floor was made of stone. Saiyans, at least the common ones didn't know what comfort meant.

Goku remembered how Radditz came in and said that he had two choses; work for the saiyans or get executed for defining the order of the king. He might have chosen death, ratter then killing innocent people, but Radditz had a leverage; his family. If he wanted Chichi and Gohan to stay alive, he had no other choice then to do as the king ordered. There was no other way. They also had a similar room to the one he was in, with the small difference that it also contained a crib for Gohan. Goku was allowed to see them for a few hours every day, but he was separated from then otherwise.

They let him walk freely on the corridors as most of the other saiyans were stronger than he, which was also quite a strange feeling. He was the most powerful fighter on Earth, yet he was nobody here, among his own race.

„Bulma!" He cried out surprised as he saw his childhood friend in one of the rooms.

It was a research lab actually, which made sense. It had also white walls and simple floor from stone, but it also had strange equipment everywhere. The room had many selves along the walls with tools and small machines on it, while in the middle of the room there was a big crafting table and next to it an another one with some drafts all over it. At the right side there was a broken healing tank, while at the right side a pile of broken armours.

„Goku! I thought you are dead!" Bulma also cried out, then she run to him and hugged him.

„I... I failed..." Goku sighed, when she let him go and stepped back a bit.

„No! You are alive, which means there is still hope!"

„They killed almost everybody and I heard they sold Earth to some other race."

„We still might have a chance with the dragon balls."

„Piccolo is dead."

„No, he isn't. I have seen him, he is one of the slaves now, but he is alive. I'm not sure where Kami is, but he must be also alive then. And you just told me that Earth is still intact. That means the dragon balls are there. We just need to figure out a way to go back and call Shenlong."

„I doubt he has the power to defeat the saiyans."

„He doesn't. But he can create a new Earth, teleport everybody there and review all the dead people."

„Even if, that's three wishes, which means it's three years."

„I know, but at least we have some hope! I'm sure you will find a way to defeat the saiyans."

„Gee, I don't know. I mean almost everybody is stronger than me."

„I already have a plan; a gravity room. I know that this planet has 10 times more higher gravity, then Earth. Yet, I seem to be fine, here, inside the palace. It means they figured out a way to decrease gravity. I will find a way to increase it and then your training will be much more effective."

Goku had no idea what to think. She sounded so optimistic, even though she just lost everything. It turned out the reason why she was alive was mostly because of the fact that one of the saiyans figured out that she was a scientist and since saiyans were struggling with technology, he decided to make her a slave. Bulma also could move freely as she wanted, since leaving the castle was no option for her as the gravity would crash her outside, also they had her father and mother. Since Freeza left, the saiyans had trouble maintaining the technology what Freeza bought to the planet. They used up almost every armour and failed to reproduce it, also most of the scouters were destroyed along with the healing tanks. The saiyans gathered some scientists from another planets in the hope that they can repair some of the machines, but all they could manage was minor maintenance and some minor repairs. Bulma had all her hands full and she had no idea where to begin. Yet, she was determined to build a gravity room for Goku, otherwise they will never have the chance to leave. She tried to reason to let her father work here as well, as he was almost as good as her, but the saiyan guard refused to listen to reason.

"Great, I was just looking for you!" Radditz called as he saw Goku walking towards him on the corridor.

So far Goku only saw a small fragment of the palace, as it was quite huge. It was lacking every kind of luxury, or decoration for that matter. The walls were bare, just like the floor. He managed to get a glimpse on the royal wing of the place, where the king lived with a small number of elite fighters. The door, which separated the royal wing from the other sections was always guarded by 2 saiyans, preventing anybody to enter, unless the King demanded their presence. The floor there was covered with red carpet and Goku saw some paintings on the wall and several statues on the hallway. He wondered if it was made by saiyans, or by some of the slaves who lived on the planet. He guessed it was the slaves, as so far the saiyans seemed to only care about fighting.

"What do you want?" Goku asked.

"We decided to send you to your first mission. You are all healed, so there is nothing what keeps you here any longer. I know you are not ready to kill people yet. I managed to find a perfect job for you. We have a planet called Orion, it's enslaved by us, but we just got the news that Freeza's soldiers are there and killing off people. You need to protect them."

Goku had no idea what to say. It certainly sounded better than blowing up a planet, still, he had his doubts about trusting his brother. He was accompanied by Karris, who was one of the elite fighters.

"You have to keep an eye on me, don't you?" Goku asked as he walked to the hangar with Karris.

"Something like that. I'm not a fan of genocide either, hence I get these kind of missions."

"What?"

"Don't look so shocked. Not all of the saiyans are bloodthirsty, just most of us." Karris smiled bitterly.

"Who is this Freeza? Everybody seems to be afraid of him."

"He almost killed our entire race. If not for your father, we would be all dead now." The older saiyan began and he shorty explained what happened almost 20 years ago.

"Wow, I would like to fight him!" Goku smiled, causing Karris to stop and look at him:

"Why?"

"He sounds extremely strong. Sure, most of you are stronger than me, yet you are still afraid of him. He must be really powerful!"

Karris had no idea what to think about the younger saiyan's reaction. He seemed to be excited from the news that there is somebody so powerful out there. Was he crazy? He must be, maybe the head injury what made him forget who he was, also caused some other brain damage. That must be it!

The planet was only half a day journey away, so they arrived relatively quickly. As they landed Goku looked around and he almost had the impression he was on Earth. The flora and fauna looked extremely similar, the gravity was also the same. Karris activated his scouter and located Freeza's soldiers with ease.

"Follow me!" He looked at the younger saiyan.

"Ok" Goku nodded and they began to fly north.

While they were flying, Goku surveyed his surroundings. He felt several small Ki, indicating that people still inhabited the planet. As for Freeza's soldiers, they had slightly stronger Ki, but so far they didn't seem to be dangerously strong. When they flew a bit lower Goku had a chance to see the inhabitants. They were a bit higher than humans, but appeared similar. As he looked at them longer, he realised they had green skin and pointy ears. He smiled as the thought crossed his mind; these "people" reminded him of the spices what might have come out if Piccolo would end up having children with humans. When he landed with Karris, Freeza's soldiers spotted them with their own scouters and they fired some energy beams in their direction. Both saiyan evaded them with ease, then Karris launched a counter-attack. Goku remained in mid-air, not sure what to do. Were those soldiers really the bad guys?

"Let me go!" One of the inhabitants cried, as Freeza's soldier was trying to crush his throat.

It helped Goku to make his decision, he launched his attack towards the soldiers, saving the life of the man who was almost strangled. The soldiers alone were not much of a challenge, but they were in a far greater number, then the saiyans. While at the end the saiyans won, Goku sustained several injuries. None of those were life threatening, but it still caused him a great deal of pain.

"You are really weak!" Karris called.

Goku looked at him and realised that he had not even a scratch on him and while he was out of breath, Karris seemed to be still full of energy. True, he was one of the elites, still Goku had a hard time imagining that somebody could have so much power. Compared to Karris, Radditz seemed weak and he even failed to take him. He righted himself and smiled.

"What's so funny?"

"It seems like I have a lot to learn to catch-up with you. I'm happy for the challenge!"

Karris once again had no idea what to think about this attitude. He sighed, deciding the guy was just all talk, and after they scanned the planet for other soldiers, they went back home.

As Goku wasn't used to the high gravity of the planet, he spend some of his time in the palace to be able to relax and rest. He went out every day and spent a lot of time there to train and to make sure he can move at a normal speed even outside. The palace had a huge garden, which held all kind of strange flora. It was like a botanical garden of some kind. As Goku wandered in the garden, he realised that one of the pine trees was from Earth. He had known this type as it grow around his house as well. As he continued to walk further, even though it took him an enormous effort, he discovered a cherry tree as well. It was in full bloom and it seemed like a piece from heaven. While he was never the sentimental type, he walked to the tree and placed his hand on its trunk.

"What are you doing outside?" Karris asked, causing Goku to jump.

"I wanted to look around."

"You are far from the palace. I'm quite surprised that you managed to come all the way here."

"I'm beginning to get used to this gravity. Also, it's quite a good training opportunity for me. What is this place?"

"It's the royal garden. King Vegeta's great-great grandmother was very fond of exotic plants so the king decided to bring back some kind of gift for her, every time they finished a mission. For some reason it became a tradition and even the previous king asked the warriors to bring back something from other planets."

"Judging from this tree, it seems the current king is also doing it."

"More or less. He hasn't chosen any mate yet, so he is not pressing the issue. Also, since we are in war with Freeza, there are only a couple of planets what we invaded."

"It seems unusual for saiyans."

"We are not monsters you know. It's just our way of living to invade planets…

"And kill entire races?"

"There is a simply rule in the universe; only the strongest survive."

"My grandfather told me, that the stronger people are there to protect the weaker ones."

"Seems like humans have an interesting way of thinking." Karris said, then he walked away.

It took Goku quite some time, until he was accustomed to his new life on Planet Vegeta. He only met his father when he was already there since a months, as he was out on a long mission on the King's order. Both Bardock and Goku was taken aback by the fact how similar they looked. Apart from the scar on Bardock's face, they were almost identical. Goku learned that his mother died 4 years ago in a fight and she was a strong warrior. Bulma worked on the machines in the lab day and night, still within 6 months she finished the gravity room. This, at the end wasn't a room, just a belt, which projected a high gravity around the man who wore it. After she explained how it's working, she added:

"You can train even if you are on missions, nobody will know about it."

"Wow Bulma, you are a genius!" Goku called as he turned on the belt.

By now he was used to the high gravity on the planet, so he set the device to a gravity level which was 15 times higher than Earth's gravity. After a few months and finishing mission successfully, he was allowed to live with Chichi and Gohan. Even though Chichi was against training Gohan when they still lived on Earth, now there was no question that he will be a fighter. As soon as Gohan was able to walk, Goku spent almost all of his free time to train him. Chichi was assigned to the kitchen and she became one of the best chiefs. It turned out that even though the saiyans ate a lot, they were not much of an expert how to prepare good meals. While other races living in their castle might have had a better idea, they never really thought that food could actually taste good. Goku was almost always on his way as he was assigned to missions, yet thanks to Karris these were all protective missions and not the invader kind. Reluctantly, but Bardock also accepted that his son might need more time to adjusting to the saiyan ways, then the others, who came back from their mission as a young child.


	3. Chapter 3

**Here is the next update, I hope you will enjoy it. I still plan to update the story once a week, hopefully I will have time to write :) **

Bulma was struggling with one of the healing tanks and as she failed to figure out what was wrong with it, she threw the wrench away, swearing:

"Damn that stupid retarded creature who invented this shit!"

"If you were aiming for me, your aim sucks."

Bulma turned around and saw that the King was standing only a few meters away from her. She had no idea what to think about his sudden visit as she never talked with him before. Sure, she knew who he was, she learned almost every saiyan's name in the last 3 years, but as a slave, nobody talked with her, unless they wanted something. She signed, realising that the King most probably also wanted something from her, though she still found it strange that he walked into her lab alone.

"What do you want?"

"Show some respect, I'm your King!"

Bulma grinded her teeth together not to insult him, but she had no intention to repeat her question in a more polite way. Vegeta looked at her and couldn't figure out what to think. He already heard how much of an expert she was and when she managed to reproduce the armours which were created by Freeza's scientist, he was somewhat impressed. Then, just a couple of weeks ago she pulled off to make scouters and now those were also under mass production in the factory, by the other slaves. He became curious who the woman was and decided to pay her a visit. While there was no difference on the field between man and woman, when they were not fighting, women had no real freedom against their mates. They had to do, what their mate told them to do and women couldn't really share their opinion. With other men they were allowed to argue, but never with their own mates.

"When can you repair the tanks?" He finally asked.

"I have no idea. I'm struggling with this shit since weeks now and I still don't know why this one is not working. I replaced all the broken pieces, it should work!"

"I don't need excuses, I need it to work until the end of the month!"

"I need a hot bath, I long sleep and a freakin' cup of coffee. It seems like we cannot always have what we want." She shoot back.

Vegeta was dumb folded. Nobody ever spoke to him like this, especially not the slaves. Was she crazy? She should have been terrified by his presence, yet she was arguing with him? He will teach her some respect! He stepped closer, forcing Bulma to back off until her back was against the wall:

"Nobody will talk to me like that!"

"Or what? Will you kill me? Go ahead, do it, it's not like I don't know that you are stronger than me. But then good luck finding someone, who can fix your damn machines!"

Bulma had no idea where she took the courage to talk with him like this. She had no death wish, yet she behaved so. It was mostly because she worked her ass off in the last 3 years and nobody ever appreciated her work. They took it as it was something natural, while she talked with the other "scientist" and they had not even half of the knowledge what she had. She was a genius, yet she was treated as a nobody, a simple slave. For the first time, Vegeta had no idea what to do. His first instinct was to blast her away, yet she was right. He needed her knowledge and without her, they still wouldn't have any scooters, just the remaining dozen, what they managed to keep intact from the ones Freeza bought to them. He grunted, then released her.

"Good, it seems at least you have some kind of common sense." Bulma smiled.

"Don't press it, I might still change my mind!"

"Sure, sure. Now let's get back to business! If you want to have this thing in a working condition, then let my father work here as well, with me. He is also a scientist and while I'm mostly better than him, I learned everything what I know from him. I need an another set of eyes here."

"Deal." Vegeta agreed.

As soon as he left the room, Bulma felt that her legs began to shake and she had to sit down. She just played with the fire and she was sure he almost killed her. But she just cannot die, she has to help Goku somehow get back to Earth and gather the dragon balls. She already wasted 3 years of her precious life here. She wanted to get out and be free again!

"I don't want to train any longer!" Gohan cried, when he hit the wall of the training room for the 5th time within 1 minute.

Goku sighed, then stepped to Gohan and helped him to get up. Maybe he was too hard with him, he was only a child. Still, it wasn't like he had any other choice. He wanted to train him even on Earth, but never planned such an intensive training for him. But now it didn't matter what he wanted, the only chance to get out of this planet was to be strong enough to overthrow the saiyans. To do that, he needed Gohan, who had a bigger potential, then what he could ever imagine. Bulma also made him a gravity belt and so while they training seemed nothing extraordinary, it was much more intensive, than any of the saiyans thought. Goku managed to train and complete his missions in a gravity which was 150 times greater than the one on Earth. By now he was most probably stronger, than most of the others, yet as he could repress his Ki, nobody suspected it.

"Here you are" Bardock called as he stepped in the room. "I see you are training the boy!"

"I heard you are planning to send him to missions as well, so I have to train him." Goku answered, while he picked up Gohan and held him.

"You are too soft" Bardock grunted.

"I don't ever want to be like you!"

Bardock looked at his son and he had no idea what to think. Truth was, everybody expected that he will be dead after the first few missions, yet he was still alive. Even though he got more and more difficult assignments, he somehow managed to come back alive. Bardock's visions stopped after Freeza run away, but not completely. Sometimes he still caught glimpses of the future, which happened later. Just once, he has seen his son facing Freeza on a strange green planet, fighting him one-on-one. While he never saw who won, a fight alone with Freeza was already impressive. Nobody could have taken him alone, not even now. He kept this from everybody, even from the king.

"Bardock, I need you in the throne room now!" Vegeta called and he also entered the room.

He threw a glance at Goku, then turned back to Bardock:

"What are you doing here in the first place?"

"I just came to bring this." Bardock answered and handed over a scouter to his son.

"Oh, I don't need this." Goku said and handed back the device.

"What?" Vegeta asked shocked.

"I can tell somebody's power level without any device. Also, these things are not entirely trustworthy.

"Explain it!" Vegeta demanded.

Goku reluctantly put back Gohan on the ground, then asked Vegeta to check his power level. Vegeta turned on the device and he was shocked to see it was 10. Sure, the saiyan before him was a low class warrior, but he had to be stronger than that.

"Now pay attention!" Goku called, then he began to increase his Ki.

Vegeta couldn't believe his eyes, as Goku's power increased more and more. Then, it stopped and began to decrease. Then it increased again, before it went back to 10.

"How is this possible?"

"It's not that difficult. You can manipulate your Ki, also completely decrease it. This way I can prevent that any of the scouter is picking me up."

Both saiyans were taken aback by this. They never heard of a way to manipulate somebody's power level, not to mention about the ability to sense it. Vegeta became determinated to learn it, yet he was too proud to ask for a low class warrior's help. He was sure he will find a way to figure it out. Still, it was surprising how a low class warrior knew something like this. Also, he was somewhat surprised that he was still alive and he seemed to be stronger than half of the saiyans now. How come? How did he manage to improve so much during such a short time?

"One week from now you are going on a mission with me!" Vegeta suddenly looked at Goku. "Some fighters spotted Freeza near one of the planets. I have no doubt he is coming here. I plan to meet him before he arrives and kill him once and for all."

"Sire, why do you want him to accompany you?" Bardock asked, confused. "I thought you are going with your elite guards."

"Sure, they are also coming." Vegeta said, then left the room, indication Bardock to follow him.

Goku had no idea what to think about Vegeta's sudden interest in him. At least he seemed to be interested as otherwise he would never invite him to tag along on one of his missions. During the last 3 years, he learned how saiyan society worked, what it meant to be a low class warrior and a member of an elite, etc. Thus, while he began as a low class, by now he was one of the middle-class warriors. In case he wouldn't have hidden his true powers, he might have been in the 1st class, which was only a rank away from the elite. Yet, even so his powers were less than Karris', whom Goku came to consider as a friend. After the first year, the saiyans decided to trust him more, as he behaved more or less like them. As they were in constant fight with Freeza's troops, they hardly ever had the chance to invade new planets and sell them for other races or trade them for technology. That's why they were happy to have Bulma on board. Mostly the fights were on planets what the saiyans invaded previously and used it's recourses for their own good. They had at least 20 planets like this, each had its own unique resource. Freeza's plan was to cut the saiyans supplies, so he targeted the colonies, yet so far the saiyan warriors managed to push back his troops. Strange as it was, the colonies started to think about their invaders as heroes. Sure, they hated the saiyan oppression, yet during the years they learned that there are worse races out there, then the saiyans.

"Goku, what did you do with my poor little baby?" Chichi cried out as she saw Goku entering their chambers with Gohan.

"It's not as bad as it looks." Goku said, and looked at Gohan.

He had some bruises on his arms and legs and a blue eye. Still, thanks to his saiyan blood those injuries were supposed to be healed with a couple of days.

"I have to be stronger, so we can go home!" Gohan nodded.

"I know, I know. It's just so terrible, fighting at such a young age!" Chichi sighed, while she indicated Gohan to sit down and she began cleaning his wounds.

"I'm sorry, I know you never wanted him to be a fighter in the first place." Goku looked at his wife.

"I'm not stupid, I know we don't have a choice" she called, then stepped to his husband and hugged him.

"We will get out of here, I promise" Goku whispered and he hugged her back.

He couldn't help but feel guilty for the fact, that they were all stuck here. Regardless how many time Chichi or Bulma said to him that originally he would have blown up Earth years ago, I didn't help. It was also not much of a consolation to know that without him Piccolo Daimao would rule Earth by now. He felt, he should have had to power to defeat Radditz and his comrades and then maybe the saiyans would have left them alone. Most of the people were killed, with only some survivors, who were working on the colonies as slaves. He knew Piccolo was alive, but he had no idea about the fate of the rest of his friends; Krillin, Tien, Yamcha, Chaoz, Roshi… most probably they were killed as they tried to fight Radditz and he was responsible for their death. He was more than thankful for the fact that he still had his family, even though the saiyans used it as leverage over him.

Due to the fact that he had to go with Vegeta on a mission, he had a week off from his duties, for the first time since a long while. He spent most of it training, while he decided to visit an invaded planet. Orion was the first planet what he had seen when he was sent to protect it. Somehow he ended up getting to know some of their original inhabitants and as unlikely as it was, he got some friends there. Being a saiyan wasn't as strong as his original personality, which just made people on Earth like him. Turned out that although the Orions were not a strong race, they still had some interesting techniques, which he could have used in fights. One of them was to temporary increase his power level and double it. It was similar to Kaio-ken, but wasn't perfected on that level yet. Still, when Goku managed to persuade Kwen, one of the Orions, to teach him this, he was completely taken aback how useful it was for him.

"We use it for lifting heavy objects, or to increase our speed when we are hunting" Kwen explained. "But as our power level is low to begin with, even if we double it, we are no match for any of the saiyans."

"I could use it though against them" Goku called.

"Why would I believe you? You are a saiyan, just like them. What makes you so different?"

"I was raised on a planet called Earth and I had no knowledge of my origins. I considered that place my home, I even have a son from one of the women there and I found many friends among the humans. Then one day Radditz came, destroyed my home, killed almost everybody and sold the planet to an another race. That's more than enough reason for me to hate them, don't you think?"

Kwen looked at the man standing before him. He had to give him, that he was indeed different from the rest. Still…

"Why are you fighting on their side then?"

"Because they are stronger and if I refuse to do their bidding, they would kill my son and my wife. I just cannot take them, not right now at least. That's why I need this technique!"

Kwen ended up believing his story and helped him to master the techniques. It gave Goku an idea, that maybe some other races could also have similar techniques, which would help him to reach his goal. Whenever he had the opportunity he visited the other planets searching for these techniques. He managed to learn one more from a race called Harcom, who looked like ordinary humans, except from their eyes, which were red. This made it possible to gather energy from his environment and use it as his own. While learning the technique from Kwen only took a few weeks, this one took him almost a year. Also, it took a long time until he gathered sufficient energy from the environment and in a one-on-one fight there was no chance he could use it.

When he got his short break he headed for one of the invaded planets called Wyvr, where he wasn't before. He knew that their inhabitants were strange bug-like creatures. They were about 2m high, walked on 4 legs and used their remaining 2 legs kind of like hands. On first glance they seemed primitive, but they had a high agricultural knowledge. This planet produced 90% of the food from what the saiyans ate. As Goku landed and stepped out of his spaceship, he felt how the onlookers shoot him glances filled with hate. Even though he still wore his orange gi and had no tail, he still couldn't deny that he was a saiyan. He tried to ignore them and walked away from his ship.

"Goku?" he heard a voice behind him, which sounded too familiar.

As he turned around he saw Krillin running towards him and the next moment his friend crashed into him, hugging him, while he had tears in his eyes.

"Krillin!" He called, surprised.

"I cannot believe you are alive! I was sure they killed you!"

It took Krillin around 5 minutes to calm down and they could talk.

"They left me alive, as I'm also a saiyan. I have to do what they order me to do, as they have Chichi and Gohan."

"Oh, so they are also alive! It's so great!"

"What are you doing here?"

"I got deported to work here, along with Piccolo and Kami."

As Goku looked around he suddenly saw Piccolo standing not far from them. There was something strange about him though and he concentrated on him to find out what.

"You merged with Kami?" Goku asked shocked.

"I had too. He was too old for these kind of work and he was dying. As I have no plan to die yet, there was no other choice." Piccolo answered stepping a bit closer.

"Oh, so that means the dragon balls are no longer active, right?"

"Don't tell me that you planned to use them?" Krillin asked. "How?"

"It was actually Bulma's idea" Goku began, then told them about her plan.

"There might be still a way to use them" Piccolo called, after they all remained silent for a while.

"How?" asked the two friends at the same time.

"Now that I merged with Kami, I remember that I'm from a planet called Namek. Namek also had dragon balls, that's where Kami got the idea in the first place. We just need to figure out a way to get there."

"Maybe Bulma can dig up something in the saiyan database" Goku began to think aloud. "Still, I have no idea how to go there. I mean I can move freely in the galaxy as the council is sure I will go back until they have my family, but I cannot disappear for weeks.

"We could escape, in case you can smuggle some spaceship here!" Krillin called, lowering his voice.

By now all of the Wyvrs left, so there was no need to be afraid that they overhear something.

"I will speak with Bulma, she might have an idea. Wow, it's so god to know that you both are alive!"

"Why are you here? I mean obviously not for visiting us as you had no idea that we are here." Piccolo asked.

"I wanted to speak with one of the people, bugs, whatever they are; too see if they have some interesting techniques." Goku answered and he explained them what he managed to learn so far.

"Wow, it's an excellent idea to learn from them!" Krillin called. "I bet the saiyans never even considered this possibility as they think they are almighty. Though, I don't think the guys here have something what you could use."

"They can heighten their senses" Piccolo interrupted. "Meaning, with some concentration they can focus on their sights and see as far as humans only could with a binocular. I think they can also have a pretty good hearing, similar to mine. I can hear people talking even if they are a mile away from me. Though, while I was born with it, they learned it."

Krillin looked at the Namekian having no idea how he learned all this. He was working with him in the same group and he had no idea about this stuff.

"Great! Do you think they will train me?" Goku asked.

"They really hate your kind…" Krillin sighed. "But I'm friends with some of them, I can ask.

While Krillin disappeared, Goku and Piccolo remained at the same place. Truth was, the saiyan had no idea where they were exactly standing with the Namekian. He offered his help with Radditz, they fought on the same side, but they lost. Now he was also one of the slaves, just like him. It was obvious he won't try to kill him now as he wasn't the number one enemy currently. Goku decided that's good enough for him and he won't worry about this at least until they get rid of the saiyans. Krillin came back after quite a while with one of the bugs, whom he introduced as Gaa.

"Will you train me?" Goku asked.

Gaa stepped closer to him and put one of his "hands" on the saiyans head. He basically read in the young man's head, to make sure his intentions were just like Krillin said. As Krillin lived among them since 3 years, he trusted him and that was the only reason he even considered teaching a saiyan.

"It seems like Krillin was right, you don't seem like a saiyan" Gaa finally said and he removed his hand.

"So you will train me?" Goku asked again and when Gaa nodded, he jumped up in the air as he became excited.


	4. Chapter 4

**Truthfully, I have no idea whether you guys like this story or not as I haven't gotten any reviews for the last chapter. I'm enjoying it and it's not like I will beg for reviews, but even if they are negative, I'm interested.**

During that time Chichi sit in the garden with Gohan and Bulma, enjoying the warm weather. Thanks to Goku's intensive training, Gohan had no difficulties at all to endure the 10 times higher gravity, while it took Chichi more than a year until she could finally move more or less free. Bulma first considered to simply build an anti-gravity belt so she could go out, then she decided against it as she would have risked revealing Goku's gravity belt. While Chichi was involved in material arts since childhood, Bulma never ever trained before. Heck, she never even went down to a gym in her life. Yet, living constantly in the palace, between walls wasn't an option, so she was determined to be able to go out. As she never quite dared to simply step out unlike Chichi, she built an another gravity belt and increased the gravity to 2. Then as she was adjusted to that, she increased it to 4, and so on. It took her almost 3 years until she could move around outside of the palace. It was the first time she enjoyed the garden with Chichi and Gohan. While Chichi already moved around normally, Bulma still felt like weights were all over her body. Yet, she managed to walk at a slow but constant peace. They picked a spot under the cherry tree, to have a slight feeling of being on Earth.

"It's such a shame that I have to go back to the kitchen within 30 minutes" Chichi sighed.

"Well, I shouldn't have come out at all "Bulma said with a sad smile. "I mean I have a lot to do and even with my father around I just cannot finish everything.

"How many others are working there?"

"6, but sometimes I feel like even the stupidest human on Earth has more sense to invent, then these guys. But those are the ones I have and I decided to teach them."

"You mean like in school?"

"Sort of, yes. I cannot figure out how saiyans learn in the first place. I haven't seen any indication that they have an education system."

"I think they are just learning how to fight. It's so terrible, I wanted Gohan to become an intelligent man and now he will end up being a fighter, just like his father…"

They sit in silence for a while, observing as Gohan was trying to complete a workbook, which somehow survived the invasion and got transported back to the planet. Chichi managed to salvage a few books and whenever she had time she tutored her son, but it wasn't the preferred peace at all. When an hour later Bulma stood in the lab in front of the 6 scientists, she again though about how messed up her life became. She tried to concentrate and pointed again on the blackboard, where she drawn an atom. While she tried to explain the basics, she realised that Vegeta entered the lab. She was sure he wanted something, yet he remained close to the door and leaned against the wall, watching her. She was glad that nobody else has seen him, as otherwise her pupils would bow to greet him. It was sometimes comical as some of the slaves bowed so low that their noses almost touched their legs.

"Different isotopes of the same element contain the same number of protons but differing numbers of neutrons. The mass number of an isotope is the total number of nucleons - neutrons and protons collectively."

Just as she finished the last sentence she knew she lost them again. None of the other 6 scientist had any idea what she was talking about. She sighed and asked:

"Now which part was not clear?"

"What are isotopes again?" One of them asked; he was from planet Orion with a name Watu.

"Seriously?! I know that saiyans are dumb, as they don't seem to have any education system, but really, none of you heard about school?"

For some reason Vegeta had to smirk as he watched Bulma struggle. First, he had no idea, what she was trying to accomplish, but by now he figured out she was trying to teach them. How strange humans were. Saiyans never taught anything, they learned it by doing it. When he realised Kakarott was actually teaching his brat to fight, he was confused. Every saiyan learned how to fight on their own or if they failed, they died. Sure, sometimes they sparred, but never revealed their techniques. In case others had the ability to copy it, they did. When Bulma reached the remark about the saiyans, the scientist cried out in fear. Nobody dared to insult the saiyans, not even if none of their oppressors were around. Yet, she just did it, while she was fully aware that Vegeta was there, unlike the others.

"What? It's true!" She called.

Vegeta considered telling her off, but decided against it. It was much more fun watching her struggling with the others. After 15 more minutes she gave up, though she promised that they will continue it the next day. Just then Watu looked at Vegeta and fear clearly registered on his face, just like on his comrades as the others looked at him as well. He smirked and ordered them to go back to their works, then stepped to Bulma and asked:

"Are you seriously trying to teach them?"

"I hardly have any other choice. Those are the guys I have and I cannot do everything alone, not even now, that my father is also helping."

"Is the healing tank working?"

"We had a deal. It's done" she sighed, then grabbed a chair and sit down.

Vegeta raised his eye-brown. Was she really so stupid that she still hasn't learned the etiquette? Nobody was supposed to sit in the King's presence, unless he was sitting and he offered them to sit. As he surveyed her, he apprehended that she was well aware of it, she was just ignoring it. As Bulma looked at Vegeta, she couldn't miss his disapproving look.

"Oh come on, relax a bit!" She called, grabbing an another chair and pushing him down.

Truth was; she wouldn't have had the strength, but Vegeta was so shocked that he simply never even had the chance to resist. He had never met such a person before and still struggled with the question how to react, when she asked:

"Say, which race has the most advanced technology among your slaves?"

"The harcoms."

"How come none of the scientists are harcoms then?"

"We need them to work in the mines to get enough material to build our spaceships."

"Can I have one here? Maybe one of them could really help me, instead of causing more trouble."

Vegeta had no idea what to say. She was just asking something from him and she did it casually. Like they were in the same rank, while nobody, not even his elite fighters talked with him like this. Even they feared his powers as saiyans respected power/strength above all. True, he wasn't the strongest when he was 5 and got crowned, yet as he was born an elite, he soon became their superior in every aspect. Apart from Bardock, none of his guards could put up a serious fight with him. The only one who wasn't intimidated by his presence was Kakarott. First he thought it's some kind of human thing, but every other human (at least those few who survived the attack) feared him. So much, that some couldn't even control themselves and they were trembling.

"You sincerely think that a harcom can help?" He finally asked.

"I hope so. Maybe I should be the one who is picking him. I mean I could go over to their planet and talk with them."

"You cannot leave this place!"

"I'm not trying to run away, it's just makes more sense for me to come along. See, I'm a genius among my own race, yet if you pick anybody else, he couldn't have repaired the tank or reproduce the armour. Even if a race is advanced in technology, it doesn't mean that all of the members have the same knowledge. The same with saiyans. You are warriors, but there is a significant difference between your power and the power of one of the lower level fighter. Hence, I should select the new scientist!"

The king had to agree, what she said made sense. Yet, he couldn't just let her go, risking her to escape. Just as he reached this conclusion Bulma added:

"If you are so worried about me escaping, then come with me!"

"Me?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

"I'm the king, I don't have time to waste on such trivial tasks!"

"Having a high level technology is not trivial! Come on, I promise I will be a good girl" Bulma smiled and she winked at him.

That has taken him so off-guard that he blushed. She behaved like some kind of concubine! Bulma had a hard time not to laugh as she saw his expression. She knew too well, that she already went as far as possible, so laughing was out of the question.

"Fine! I will be here tomorrow at 5am" he agreed and left.

Bulma couldn't believe she was finally getting off from the planet. Sure, she had to come back, no way she could escape, still it was the first time something interesting happened. As challenging as working in the lab was, she needed some kind of other excitement. Even if the king wasn't the best company, she had to take what she could. The next morning she was as excited as a little girl, who was just about to go to an amusement park at the first time in her life. It was also the first time that she didn't put on the white overall, what was the common dress for the scientist on the planet. She decided to wear a back short and a baby blue strapless shirt with sneakers. When she was pondering over what she should wear, she almost laughed out seeing that she only owed about a dozen of clothes. Vegeta was wearing his usual uniform with the armour and Bulma seriously asked herself, if that was the only clothing what saiyans had. During the years what she spent here, she never saw anything other than these uniforms.

"Ready to go?" She asked, smiling.

Vegeta looked at her and he had no idea, why she was so excited. It was obvious she was happy, yet he couldn't think of anything, why she would be. She was a slave, lost almost anything, yet she hardly ever complained, apart from the fact that the other scientists were incompetent. Such an enigma. He had no idea how he would have taken if he lost his race, his home and he was stranded on an another planet, like on Earth. It was still shocking how close he came to that. In case Freeza succeeded, he would have been the only survivor along with Nappa and Radditz, who were also out on missions. And yes, Kakarott, but he wasn't much of a fighter.

"Why are you so happy?" He finally asked, while they began to walk towards the hangar.

"After 3 years I'm finally getting off from this planet and get a day off. Sort of… anyway. I'm not sure what you do for fun, but this definitely is fun for me."

"Fun?"

"Yeah, you know, when you don't fight, eat or sleep, you just do something because you want to."

"Train."

"No, I'm not talking about that kind of willingness. You train because you have to, I invent because I have to. Sure, it doesn't mean that we don't enjoy it, 'cause as much as I'm overloaded I still like my work mostly. I mean things, from what you don't gain anything; you are not stronger from it or learn anything from it, you just simply enjoy it!"

"I have no idea, what you are talking about. I don't do anything, what has no purpose!"

They exchanged a look, which revealed that both of them though the other one is crazy. Finally Bulma shrugged and let it slide. This time they went with a small cargo ship, which was able to hold on board around 5-6 person.

"How come you still have so many advanced spaceships?" Bulma asked, when they left the orbit.

"We managed to retain the plans for most of them so we can rebuild it."

"While Freeza brought you the scouters, armours and healing tanks, you bought the spaceship technology?"

"Traded it for planets."

"I certainly hope you got a good price for Earth, it's a much better planet then most of the ones what you ever traded."

"How do you know that?"

"I looked around the database, where you store these information. It's not like I hacked it or something. It's accessible for anybody, at least for those who can figure out how your strange computers are working. I still have issues with it, that's why I built one for me."

He looked at her and couldn't help to wonder, whether the saiyans made a mistake, when they killed most of the humans. It seemed like that while they had a primitive technology compared to Freeza, they were capable of understanding more advanced ones and reproduce it. Not that it could be changed now, still it was unexpected. They arrived within 20 minutes as it was the nearest planet to them. As soon as they landed Bulma stormed out, excited to see how the planet was. It caused her a slight surprise though and she landed on the ground, flat on her chest.

"I might have forgotten to mention that it has a gravity which is 5 times higher than on Earth." Vegeta smirked.

"Oh yes, you forgotten it, what?" She snapped, while she stood up and removed the dirt from her clothing.

She couldn't help to notice that he looked surprised, then she remembered it wasn't common knowledge that she was used to Planet Vegeta's gravity, mostly due to the fact that it was her recent achievement. Though he decided not to ask about it, instead he pointed towards a small settlement and said:

"That is one of their cities, you may look around there."

Harcom was similar to Earth and as Bulma walked into the settlement, she was shocked to see that the people there looked almost human as well. Sure, the Orions looked human-like, but these inhabitants were really almost humans. As they walked towards the centre, she also noticed how terrified they were when they saw the king.

"Woman, how do you want to do it?" Vegeta asked, when they reached the centre and a very anxious leader bowed in front of him.

"My name is Bulma, don't call me woman" she answered, then turned to the man in front of them and asked:

"Can I talk with your scientists?"

The man looked unsure but when Vegeta nodded, he instructed them to follow. He led them into one of their small building, which only consisted from a big room. It had some strange furnishing, yet for the most part it was empty. The harcom left and after a few minutes he returned with 3 men and a woman. As Bulma looked at them she couldn't help to notice how one of the men looked like Yamcha. He obviously wasn't the exact copy of him as he had red eyes and longer hair, but even so he looked similar enough, like his brother. This caused Bulma to remember, that last time she saw him they had a huge fight and broke up. While it wasn't the first time they broke up, it was the most terrible fight what they ever had. She heard herself saying how she hated him and never wanted to see him again, while he called her a self-centred, egoistic harpy. Shortly after, the saiyans invaded Earth and she never had the chance to apologies. She wasn't sure if they really could have made up and resume their relationship, still she cared for him and she was in love with him, at least in the past. She sighed, forcing herself not to think about it and she began her "interview" with the candidates. Secretly she hoped that the "winner" wouldn't be the man who looked like Yamcha, yet she had to abandon this hope in the first 5 minutes. Hark - as it turned out it was his name – had a more advanced knowledge then the rest. Bulma was somewhat impressed and she began to think that maybe she can even learn from him.

"You want him?" Vegeta stepped to them, when she finished questioning them.

"Yes, if he is willing to come."

"Willing to come? He will come, it's not like he has a choice!"

"How can you threat others like objects?

"How else do you think I should treat them?"

"Normal, like you treat your own people. Though now that I think about it, you are not much better with the so-called low class warriors either. It's just… It bothers me that you behave like we went shopping or something."

"I don't see your point."

"You know what? Never mind!"

It turned out Hark was more than willing to come. Bulma confirmed it after Vegeta left them in the lab, to make sure he was not just saying it because of him.

"Among the slaves, it's one of the highest ranks to be on Planet Vegeta" Hark explained.

"Does it mean that you are not angry with me for dragging you here?"

"If anything, then I'm grateful" He smiled.

Bulma couldn't help to think that even his smile reminded her of Yamcha. She wasn't in love with him anymore, yet it still hurt her to know that he was most probably dead.


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you for the reviews, you really make my day with them! I know it's not easy leaving reviews, at least not for everybody. I also struggle sometimes to write one about the stories I read.**

**I made an extra update on Friday, but here is the regular Monday update (I will try to update every Monday). I'm not entirely happy with the 2****nd**** part of the chapter, but yeah… at least I have some room for improvement :D**

Goku came by the next day and told her about Piccolo, Krillin and Piccolo's new plan.

"I think I have seen something about Namek. I will check it later and let you know. As for the spaceship; it shouldn't be an issue. I'm in the verge of recreating the technology to put something in a capsule."

"Wow Bulma, you are great!" Goku smiled, then as Hark entered the lab he called: "Who is this guy? He looks like Yamcha!"

"He is the new scientist. I persuaded Vegeta to get him here."

"Vegeta? Since when are you on talking terms with him?"

"It just happened. One day he came into the lab to check on me. That's why my father can work here; I made a deal with him."

Goku wasn't sure what to think about that. It was unexpected from Vegeta to talk with a slave, much less to make deals with her. It seemed like Bulma was impressive even with saiyan standards. As it was Goku's last day before the mission, he decided to spend it with Gohan. Unfortunately Chichi couldn't get a day off but as Gohan wasn't assigned to any missions yet, he could take him. Gohan was very excited about their time together as he hardly ever saw his father. As they walked towards the gate of the castle they met Bardock.

"Are you training outside this time?" Bardock asked.

"No, we are taking a day off" Goku smiled.

"We are going fishing!" Gohan called happily.

"Fishing?"

"I guess as we are going tomorrow together, you have also nothing to do either. You can come with us" Goku offered.

Bardock wasn't sure what to say to this invitation. Apart from the fact that it was sudden, he never expected it. Saiyans never just spend quality time with their children, yet his son seemed to be doing that with Gohan. He became curious and decided to join them. While they were flying towards their destination, Bardock silently listened to the conversation between his son and grandson.

"Where are we going?" Gohan asked.

"I found a great place just when I was training. There is a big lake what is full of fishes. It's a bit similar to the mountains where we lived on Earth."

"Was I ever there?"

"No, but we planned to visit it with Chichi on the day Radditz came. Now we can make up for that."

Bardock knew the place where they landed, yet he never visited it before. It was small clearing in the middle of the forest and it had no significance for him. Goku made 3 fishing sticks from the wood and from the hook Bulma gave him and when he gave one to his father, he clearly had no idea what to do with it.

"You search for a worm" He began to explain and lifted up a bigger stone to reveal several insects below it "then stick it on the hook" he continued and pinned a bug there "then you throw it into the water and wait for the fishes to bite!"

While Gohan followed the instruction excited, Bardock had no idea where this was going. As he decided to come along, he did the same and they sit on the shore and waited for the fishes. While they waited, Gohan asked his father again to tell him how their house looked like on Earth. As he was only a baby, he couldn't remember on it at all and he just liked to hear about it. While they talked, Bardock though about how strange it was that they were together, doing nothing what had any use. After each of them caught at least one fish, Goku decided to take a more effective method; jump into the lake and catch a fish with his bare hands. When he removed his gi and jumped in with only his short on, Bardock had no idea what to think. Saiyans never undressed in public, also they would never catch a fish with their bare hands or with sticks. When Goku came up with a huge fish in his hands, Gohan cried out happily. As it was a huge fish and they already had 3 other, it was enough even for the 3 of them. With Goku's instruction Gohan made the fire and soon they were eating the roosted fishes with huge appetite.

"Was this all, what you did on Earth?" Bardock asked, after they finished eating and simply lay on the ground, enjoying the sunshine.

"No, mostly I trained even there."

"For what? I mean it's not like humans were a fighter race."

"Not in general, but I sort of ended up saving them from Piccolo Daimao and from Piccolo" Goku began and as both Bardock and Gohan seemed interested, he told them about the fights. Gohan already heard it, but just like any other child he liked stories and could listen to the same one over and over again. While it was the first time Bardock heard this, he recognised some of the happenings from his visions. Again he began to wonder about the part, where he saw his son taking on Freeza. Was that still something which was supposed to happen or by warning the saiyans he changed the future completely?

"I heard that you saved the saiyans, but I'm not clear on how" Goku called, after he finished his story.

"I had the ability to see the future" Bardock explained.

"You could see what will happen, before it happened?" Gohan asked amazed.

"Yes, at least for a short while. It was supposed to be a punishment from a creature, whose home world me and my team destroyed on Freeza's order. I think his race had the ability to see the future and they already knew that they will be killed off, before we arrived. He told me, I shall have the same fate; seeing my race destroyed. Though, somehow I managed to warn them. First they thought I was crazy, but then Karris told them that they should at least check it out. I have the feeling if he remained silent, I might have gone alone to face Freeza, unable to stop him."

While Goku hated that Earth was sold and it's inhabitants killed, he was glad that his father managed to stop Freeza. While saiyans also tended to destroy entire races, he felt like none of them would have deserved to die that way. Also, in the last years they were almost always busy to fight of Freeza's army, hence they couldn't do much damage in the universe. A couple hours later they flew back to the palace as Goku planned to have a good night sleep to be fresh the next day.

"Maybe we can do it again?" Goku asked as Bardock was about to turn left to go to his sleeping chamber.

"I'm not exactly sure what we did, but it was relaxing" Bardock smiled. "Maybe we can do it."

The next day Vegeta departed to search for Freeza with Karris, Bardock and Goku. Each of them took a small spaceship which saiyans used for invading planets and within a couple of hours they landed on a planet nearby. It had strange red rocks all over its surface, with no sign of life. When they got out, Goku wondered how it was possible for a race to live on a planet like this. It was hot, at least 40-45 degrees and he couldn't detect any sign of water. There were some small bushed and grasses at a few places but overall it seemed deserted. While Bardock and Karris checked their scouters Vegeta and Goku concentrated on the Ki's to see if Freeza or any of his soldiers were around.

"There are 5 incredibly high Ki's" Goku said, looking at North.

"I wouldn't call 2 of them that powerful" Vegeta remarked.

"So you figured out how to detect Ki, right?" Goku asked as he realized the king wasn't wearing any scouters either.

"It wasn't hard."

"No, not really. Once you know the basics. Oh and you can also repress your Ki."

"Of course. It won't be much of a use as Karris and Bardock can't, so I'm sure whoever those guys are, they are aware at least about 2 of us."

While Vegeta talked about the ability to sense and manipulate Ki as something he mastered within seconds, it took him a full week until he learned it on a level which he though was sufficient. He still wasn't entirely sure that it was a good idea not to have a scouter with him just in case, but he figured as Bardock and Karris have theirs, it shouldn't be an issue.

"Let's check them out!" Vegeta commanded and they began to fly towards them.

There was no sense hiding their Ki's as the soldiers already detected 2 of them for sure. To prove Vegeta's deduction, he soon sensed the five soldiers flying towards them. Within a couple of minutes they met and both group stopped in mid-air surveying each other.

"Saiyans" Captain Ginyu smirked, then he landed on the ground with his troops, the saiyans following suit.

Before Vegeta could say anything, the Ginyu force performed their strange "dance", introducing themselves. While Karris, Bardock and Vegeta were completely shocked, Goku smiled and said:

"Wow guys, it's a really cool introduction! No wonder you are Freeza's special force."

He earned a shocked look from his companions, but he failed to see it.

"Thank you!" Captain Ginyu smiled at Goku, then added: "As you seem to appreciate art, you have the honour to be my opponent!"

"That's not fair captain!" Burter complained. "You are picking the best… We should raffle or something."

"The best?" Vegeta interrupted. "For your information, he is just a middle-class warrior, while I'm the King!"

"Then he is mine!" Jeice called before anybody else could say a word.

"Then I take him!" Burter pointed at Karris.

"Then he is mine" Recoome and Guldo called at the same time, pointing at Bardock.

"I said it first!" Guldo called.

"No, I said it first!" Recoome shouted back.

"I!"

"I!"

It went on for almost a minute before Ginyu stepped between them, pushed them away and said:

"Let's just flip a coin guys!"

Reluctantly Guldo and Recoome agreed and the winner was Recoome.

"Crap!" Guldo sulked.

During this entire time Vegeta felt like he was watching small brats fight. But not even the saiyan brats were so stupid to fight like this between them. He was on the verge of throwing an energy ball at the group, when they finally agreed. Truth was, he already heard about Ginyu force a little and they were feared in the universe, yet so far he couldn't see why. Sure their Ki was high, but not that high. Suddenly he looked up and saw Goku standing before Ginyu and smiling like an idiot. He never agreed with the "distribution" what the Ginyu force made, yet each of the soldiers faced their saiyan opponent. He shrugged it off, thinking it doesn't matter that much as they can take them. Maybe even that fool, middle-class warrior was stronger than Freeza's troops.

"How come you don't have such a cool device like the others?" Ginyu asked looking at Goku.

"I don't need it to know how strong you are."

"You don't? Well, I think you do, otherwise if you had a scouter, you would be trembling now with fear!"

"Maybe you shouldn't trust your scouter that much. What I have seen from it, it's pretty useless if it comes to higher level fighters."

Ginyu smirked, then decided it was enough talk and he launched his attach towards his opponent. Goku dodged his fist, but just barely. Ginyu smirked and attached again. Goku blocked his firsts with his arms, but he was pushed backwards more and more. Then Ginyu managed to land a punch and Goku crashed into a rock.

"Fool" Vegeta though, then he focused on his own enemy.

Before Jeice had any chance to attack him, he powered up, causing Jeice to get pushed backwards, just by his increasing energy. Meanwhile Goku crawled out from the rocks and he watched Vegeta with awe. He never assumed he was so powerful. Sure he knew he was the most powerful saiyan as he was the king, yet it came to him as a surprise how much stronger he was than Karris. Karris' power level was known by him as they were sent together on missions since the beginning. He also heard that Bardock was strong and as he looked at his father fighting with Recoome, he could see why.

"Do you think you are in some kind of a 3D theatre?" Ginyu smiled. "Come and fight me!"

"Maybe it wasn't the best idea to try to fight with you while my gravity belt was on" Goku answered and he turned off the device.

It was a huge relief as the 150 times greater gravity simply vanished and he felt as light as a feather. He began to jump up and by the 4th jump he managed to get so high up that Ginyu lost sight of him. As he touched the ground again and performed some warm up kicks and punches in the air, Ginyu looked at him shocked. How can somebody be that quick? Burter was the quickest in the whole universe, at least as far as he knew, but now he began to doubt if that was indeed the truth. This saiyan seemed much quicker. Without any warning, Goku suddenly began to attack and he landed several punches and kicks, before Ginyu even realised what happened. Vegeta looked at them with interest as he suddenly felt how Goku's Ki increased, by far more than he thought it was possible. Jeice didn't give him much of a chance to watch the fight though, as he charged again in attempt to kill the king. Vegeta had to give him the credit that he was quick and it didn't mean much of an advantage that this planet's gravity was lower than the one on Planet Vegeta. Bardock seemed to gain an overhand on Recoome so much that he almost finished him off with a huge energy blast. Though before he throw it off, he suddenly froze in the air, unable to move.

"What the…" he began, then he saw Guldo laughing on him.

"That's not fair, he is my opponent!" Recoome shouted, grabbing his little green partner and lifted him off from the ground.

"That blast would have killed you, you idiot! I'm just saving your life."

"I can take him alone!"

"Look at yourself! You are bleeding and your uniform is a mess."

Recoome looked down and saw that Guldo was right. Still, he was supposed to take the saiyan, he won the right to do it fair and square. Guldo guessing what Recoome thought offered:

"You can still kill him. I will just keep the barrier around him so he cannot dodge your attack!"

"You mean it?" Recoome asked looking at Guldo with grateful eyes.

"Yes. So put me down and finish him off!"

Recoome let go of Guldo, who landed on his ass, not expecting such a sudden release. Bardock was trying to move, to break free, but he couldn't even lift his finger, he was just hanging in mid-air. Soon Recoome flew up to him and hit him hard on the face, laughing on the fact, that the saiyan couldn't move any muscle at all. Goku saw what was happening, but he had his hands full to keep up with Ginyu and while he tried to get closer to his father, he failed. Bardock was sure he will die when Recoome finally got bored beating him up and prepared to finish him off with an energy beam. The top of the beam was only inches away from him when suddenly he could move again, so he dodged most of the attack, which only scratched his left arm and leg. He was too beaten up to remain floating and he crashed into the ground. It took him by surprise when Guldo's body landed next to him, which was pierced through on his chest with an energy beam. Everybody looked at Goku who fired the attack and saved Bardock's life in the last minute. Ginyu had no idea how he managed to dodge his attack and attack Guldo at almost the same time, as they were not aware of his technique to double his power and speed.

"Cheater!" Recoome shouted.

"Me? You were the one who accepted Guldo's help, instead of fighting with my father fair and square!" Goku shoot back.

"You!" Recoome blushed, then began to throw energy balls at the saiyan.


	6. Chapter 6

**Seems that again, I managed to update my story twice this week. Yay! I hope I can continue to write at this speed, that way you can find out sooner what will happen. And just like with my other stories; while I have some basic ideas, mostly the story is taking me over; it is writing itself; hence I'm also excited to see what will happen next :D**

**Please make my day and leave some reviews!**

Doubling his powers even for that short amount of time took more out of Goku than he expected, but he somehow managed to dodge the attacks. Burter was the first, who come back to his senses and seeing Karris still distracted, he suddenly attacked him, managing to land several punches before Karris could dodge the rest. Even though Karris was powerful, he had a hard time even just hitting Burter with his attacks as he was impossibly fast. Due to that he slowly lost his energy and failed to dodge more and more attacks, leading to several injuries. He never expected that the Ginyu force was so powerful and by now he was grateful for the fact, that apparently Freeza left the planet a while ago. It was more than shocking to think that Freeza was more powerful than these guys. Karris knew he was losing and he was also aware that Bardock was lying on the ground. As he looked over, he saw that Vegeta seemed to be matching his opponent's power, while Goku seemed even stronger than Recoome.

"He is my opponent!" Captain Ginyu called and he punched Recoome, causing Goku to stop in mid-air, looking surprised.

"But he killed Guldo" Recoome snapped as he staggered to get up from the attack.

"I didn't kill him" Goku called.

Just then an energy beam cut off Guldo's head and all 3 of them looked up at Vegeta, who was laughing:

"I did."

"Why? You…" Recoome shouted, flying toward the king, but Jeice stepped in front of Vegeta, held up his right hand and commented:

"He is mine!"

"That's not fair, mine is as good as dead and I still want to play!" Recoome sulked, looking at Bardock, who was barely conscious.

"Though luck" Jeice laughed, then coughed up blood as Vegeta punched him hard in the stomach, using out the fact that he wasn't paying attention to him.

Jeice shoot a killer look at the king, then straightened himself up and they resumed their fight.

"Sorry about that" Ginyu looked at Goku.

During this interlude Goku used the chance to use the technique what he learned from the inhabitants of the colonies; this time the energy gathering. He knew he won't have enough time to fully recharge himself and it wasn't helping either that the nearest life forms were just small grasses and bushes. It seemed that luck was on his side as Ginyu looked to Jeice and Vegeta and observed their fights for a while. Goku smiled and tried to make the energy gathering quicker, knowing too well that his time was limited. While he also observed the fight, he suddenly looked over to Karris and Burter. It was clearly visible now that Karris was on the verge of fainting. His Ki was extremely low and he failed to block most of his opponent's attacks. At this rate he will be beaten within seconds. Then he realised that Recoome was walking towards Bardock with the full intention to kill him. Suddenly he had an idea; Tien's technique! Sure, he will also blind Vegeta with it, but since Jeice won't be able to see anything either, that shouldn't cause much issue. As soon as he launched his attack, everybody cried out in pain, covering their eyes with their hands. Goku caught Karris in mid-air who just got hit by an energy ball a second ago, then rushed over to Bardock and grabbed him as well. He detected a small cave earlier when they were flying here, so he quickly flew there, hiding Karris and Bardock. It wasn't the best hideout, that was clear, yet with some luck it just might be enough.

"Just stay here!" He called, then left.

When he got back to Ginyu, everybody was able to see again.

"I thought you decided to run!" Ginyu shouted.

Truth was, that was Vegeta's first thought as well, but then as he felt Goku's Ki flying away with Karris and Bardock, he wasn't entirely sure. He still played with the idea that the younger saiyan is running away with his comrades, leaving him here, until he felt his Ki approaching again. Then it hit him; he was getting out the other two from here, in order to save their lives. He was also more than aware how they lost. Bardock might have been able to kill Recoome, if not for Guldo, still Karris never had a chance against Burter. True, Recoome and Burter sustained some injuries, yet they were still able to fight. Vegeta by now assumed that he had about the same power level as Jeice, hence the fight will be decided on their skills and techniques. Even though Vegeta had countless battle against Freeza's soldiers in the last 20 years, Jeice seemed to have even more experience. Vegeta was actually surprised to see that Goku was holding his ground against Ginyu, as it was clear that he was the strongest from all. Could it be that he underestimated him? How? And he still didn't understand what happened at the beginning of the fight. The younger saiyan seemed to behave like he came from a planet where the gravity was at least 100 times greater than on their home planet. Could he have used some training device?

"Why would I run?" Goku asked, bringing back Vegeta to the present. "It's so much fun to fight against you!"

"Fun?" Vegeta asked.

"Yeah" Goku smiled, scratching the back of his head. "I mean isn't it the same for you? Aren't you fighting to test your limits?"

This question has taken aback the king. While saiyans enjoyed fighting, he rather enjoyed the fear, what he inflicted upon his opponents and the fact that he was way better. But to enjoy testing his limits? At some fights he did that, but it was a strange concept. While he wanted to destroy his enemies, the other saiyan was only interested in defeating them, spearing their lives. Why?

"Enough talking!" Ginyu called.

"Where are the other two?" Burter asked.

"Gone" Goku answered.

When Jeice was just about to attack Vegeta, Recoome called:

"It's not fair, we want to fight as well!"

"You had your opponent" Ginyu answered.

"Yours are more powerful, then those guys" Burter disagreed.

"Yeah, and you two picked first, it wasn't fair!" Recoome added.

While a huge fight began between the members of the Ginyu force, Goku stepped to Vegeta and whispered:

"I'm not sure if we can take all 4 of them."

"Bullshit, I'm the king of all saiyans; I can take all of them alone!"

"Vegeta, you cannot be serious! I watched you fight Jeice and you are on the same level, so you might be able to take him, but not the rest. As for me, Ginyu is stronger than me and I still haven't figured out how to beat him. I'm still gathering energy from the environment, but I won't have enough time…"

"What do you mean gathering energy?"

"The Harcoms have this ability and I persuaded them to teach me. I could replenish my whole energy, given I have enough time."

"You asked our slaves to teach you?"

"Yepp. Not just them, others as well. Some have really cool abilities!"

Vegeta had no idea what to think. How could a saiyan lower himself to ask for help? Nobody was good enough to teach the saiyans, especially not their slaves.

"If they are so good, how come we are oppressing them since ages?"

"While none of those races are good fighters, each of them knows something unique. I figured if I could learn their unique abilities one-by-one, I will be more powerful."

"What is it about humans and their obsessions of teaching?"

"It's logical I guess. I mean if somebody knows something and I don't, then he can teach me. I still don't know how you guys became so powerful if you never had any masters, like some experienced fighter who is sharing his knowledge."

"We go out to the battlefield and learn it. Those who don't, they end up dead!"

"But…"

"Look at you! While you are a saiyan, you are only a mid-class, while it seems like Bardock has a great ability as he became one of my elites."

"I'm not saying that you don't have to train alone, sure you do! My point is that there are some techniques out there, which might help in a fight, unless you are too proud or stubborn to ask for help."

"I…" Vegeta began, but couldn't finish as it seemed like the Ginyu force came to an agreement in the meantime.

It turned out they decided to fight two against one. Burter and Jeice got Vegeta, while Ginyu and Recoome got Goku. Both of the saiyans knew that it was bad, as they had trouble keeping up with one of the opponents, hence taking two sounded impossible. Both reached the conclusion, that they need to take out the weaker from the two, in order to have any chance to victory at all. It was easier said than done as their enemies began to attack them vehemently. Goku was happy with the amount of energy what he managed to gather and he was almost as strong as at the beginning of the fight. It was clearly visible that Recoome was in a bad shape, much worse than Ginyu. Goku decided to take a risk by trying to take Recoome out even at the cost of losing more energy than he would have preferred. He sent Ginyu into the rocks and while he was climbing out, he faced Recoome and prepared Kamehameha. When the energy hit Recoome, he tried to block it, but it was too powerful and it hit him with almost full power, causing him to crash on into the ground unconsciously. During that time the scouter was turned on for Ginyu and as it measured Goku's power, suddenly it blow up. Ginyu looked at the remains of his scouter, then on Goku with a plan slowly becoming clear in his head. While Burter was in a better shape, Vegeta similarly managed to take him out and shortly after, the two saiyan floated in the air, their backs facing each other, looking at Jeice and Ginyu.

After a short pause, they resumed fighting, but something was wrong. While Goku managed to hit Ginyu, he was a too easy target. Somehow he got the feeling, that he wasn't even trying to defend himself. It was impossible that he was already out of energy; he put up a great fight just a minute ago.

"What are you doing?" Goku asked stopping his attack.

"Letting you to beat me up" Ginyu smiled.

"Why?"

"Because we will switch bodies."

The young saiyan had no time to comprehend the meaning of those words, as he was almost instantly transported to Ginyu's body, while he took Goku's. As it caused a huge Ki movement, Vegeta stopped and looked at them, not sure about what happened.

"Captain Ginyu!" Jeice smiled, stepping over to Goku; better said to the body of Goku.

"What happened?" Goku asked, while he felt how his body hurt and how little energy he had.

Then he saw himself talking with Jeice, then looked back on himself realising what happened.

"Kakarott?" Vegeta asked, stepping to Ginyu's body.

"Yeah, looks like it" the saiyan answered on Ginyu's voice.

"Wow, I feel so strong!" Ginyu smiled, while he did some kicks and punches in the air.

"What happened?" Goku asked again.

"Since you are stronger, I decided to take your body. Now I can kill you!"

With that said Ginyu launched an attack against the saiyan. Goku tried to defend himself as good as he could, but apart from being injured, he was not used to his new body at all. He was too heavy, his arms were much longer and even just a simple punch proved to be challenging.

"Enough staring, let's finish what we started!" Jeice called, throwing energy balls at the king.

Vegeta tore away his gaze from the other two and faced Jeice. It was more than frustrating to admit even to himself, that they were almost evenly matched. He was determined to finish the fight as soon as possible as he wasn't sure how long Goku can last against Ginyu. It looked like he will have to face the Captain as well, though it was more than unsettling to know that he could switch bodies. Even if he managed to beat him, he could jump bodies and possess his. No way! He just cannot let that happen! Even just thinking about it, enraged him at such a level that his attacks against Jeice became more powerful and his opponent had a hard time deflecting them. Even so Vegeta felt his Ki decreasing at a quicker peace, than he would have preferred. Although he went out fighting almost as much as the other saiyans and he took the hardest missions, it was a long time ago that he had to go so far in a fight. Sure, he was aware that Freeza was stronger, but apart from him he assumed there was hardly anybody who could have the same strength. Though apperantly Freeza had some powerful soldiers after all. The Ginyu force wasn't like any other of his soldiers, they got paid by Freeza, while usually he forced others to do his biddings. Vegeta had no idea while these guys were so different and while Freeza was willing to pay them, when he had so many other soldiers. He again realised that the longer the fight was dragging out, the less chance he had to beat Jeice as he retained a higher energy level, than Vegeta. The king focused his energy again, causing Jeice to stop in mid-air as the wind almost threw him back. Vegeta decided not to care what will happen with Ginyu, the only opponent he was caring about was Jeice. Without any warning, he stopped gathering his energy and attacked Jeice with all his power. First it was just kicks and punches, then as those proved not quick enough he threw energy balls at him and most of them found it's target. While Jeice tried to deflect the attacks and while he was more powerful, Vegeta was quicker and that gave him the overhand.

"Please, stop!" Jeice begged.

"Oh, I'm the wrong guy to beg for mercy! I don't give a shit about your life" Vegeta smirked, while an energy ball grow bigger and bigger in his hand.

Jeice knew he will die and it made him freeze. He couldn't even try to deflect the attack, it simply hit him and burned him to death. Vegeta felt how his energy was drained due to this attack and he even had trouble keeping himself in the air, so much that he almost crashed into the ground. He managed to reduce his speed while falling, yet his impact still made a small crater in the ground. He was sweating and for a brief period his vision blurred. He hit himself hard in the stomach to prevent himself from passing out and while pain run through his body, his vision cleared up and he was able to search for Goku and Ginyu. It was somewhat unexpected to see that Goku was still able to put up a fight, despite being in Ginyu's body. Yet, judging from their fight, it seemed like he adjusted to it unexpectedly good, while Ginyu had some trouble with his new body.

"I don't get it! I should be much stronger than you in this body" Ginyu said.

"While my body might be stronger, even if you possess it, you won't have the abilities, what I learned. You still cannot double your energy, while I can, even in your body. At least now that I'm getting used to it" Goku explained, then launched an attack, hitting Ginyu in the face, then kicking him at his left side with so much power and speed that it caused Vegeta to gasp. Goku's body was almost at a similar state as Ginyu's by now.

"Don't think that you can have it for yourselves alone" Vegeta called and floated up next to Goku.

"Oh Vegeta" Goku smiled. "I was totally impressed how you defeated Jeice!"

"Of course I defeated him! I'm the king of the saiyans, I never lose a fight!"

Goku looked at the older saiyan. It was clearly visible that he was in no better shape than he himself and even just floating in the air cost him a lot of effort, yet he still looked as he was full of energy. Goku never saw somebody who managed to block out the pain of his body so much and who could continue fighting just due to his sheer willpower. As the scouter was already destroyed, Ginyu had no idea about Vegeta's state. He could see that he was injured, yet as he couldn't sense Ki, he believed his act and thought that the king was still in a relatively good shape. That made him panic for a couple of seconds, before he had a new plan. He threw an energy ball at Goku, who just party dodged it and so he crashed into the ground. He tried to get up desperately, but Ginyu's body was too worn out. The panic only hit him when he realised that Ginyu was planning to switch bodies again. He forced himself to get up and jumped between the two fighters in the last second to get his body back.

"What?" Ginyu asked shocked, realising what happened.

"Wow, great, I have my body back!" Goku called, then he felt how small energy he left and he had to land on the ground.

Even remaining standing seemed impossible and he had to lay down. He was well aware that even though he was again in his body, Ginyu was still a threat, more so as Ginyu's body was in a better shape than Goku's own. Vegeta stood there confused and he only got the picture when he heard Ginyu swearing. When he suddenly stopped and a smile formed on his face, the king felt how cold crept into his body. Goku knew what Ginyu was planning and so he tried to get up again, but even moving his fingers cost too much effort and pain. As he wanted to shout at least some warning, a strange frog-like creature landed on his face, temporary blocking his view. Thanks to his reflexes he grabbed the small animal, than an idea hit him.

"Sorry" He looked at the frog, then squeezed it a bit harder and threw it between Vegeta and Ginyu in the last second.

"What happened?" Vegeta asked, while both he and Ginyu landed on the ground and after a short pause a frog as well.

"I tricked him" Goku laughed and while his whole body hurt like hell, he couldn't stop it for a while.

"How?" Vegeta asked, grinding his teeth.

"He is the frog" Goku answered and as Vegeta looked at Ginyu's body jumping away from them in a frog-like way he got the picture.

He looked down at the frog at his boots and stepped on him. Not quenching the animal, just pinning him down so he was unable to move.

"Captain Ginyu?" the king asked with an evil smile on his face.

As he was about to step on it with is full weight, Goku stopped him:

"Don't you think he is worse off as a frog? It should be a good enough punishment to live like that."

"For this once you just might be right" Vegeta nodded, then kicked the fog, so it flew a couple of meters, before it hit the ground again, then it made a hasty escape.

When they arrived back to Planet Vegeta the doctors had all of their hands full with the 4 injured saiyans. Bardock was in the worst shape, but all of them sustained pretty serious injuries. It took 2 full days even with the healing tanks until they were fully healed. Bardock and Karris left a couple of hour earlier, while Goku and Vegeta had to spend a few extra hours there. When they finally got out and got dressed, Chichi and Gohan rushed into the room, hugging Goku tightly.

"I told you that you cannot enter the room!" A saiyan rushed after them, who looked like he just had a fight with a cat.

His face was full of scratches and he had at least 2 bite-marks on his hands. Also his uniform was torn at his chest.

"And I told you I need to see my husband!" Chichi shouted back, then focused on Goku again.

"I'm all right" Goku smiled, trying to get out from his wife's tight grip.

"Dad! I'm so glad that you are back!" Gohan cried out and as soon as Chichi let Goku go, Gohan jumped on him and hang on his neck.

"I'm also glad to be back!" Goku smiled, holding Gohan with one of his arms, while he put the other on Chichi's shoulder.

The guard wanted to try to get Chichi and Gohan out of the room, but Vegeta dismissed him with a wave. He couldn't care less, now that he was finally healed. He finished dressing by putting on his gloves and was about to leave. It was more than strange seeing how happy Chichi and Gohan was to see Goku again. While saiyans left for fights on a regular basis, they were not really welcomed back this way. Their mates and child mostly just acknowledges their return, as it was not a big deal. In case a saiyan died on the battlefield, than everybody was on the opinion that he was not a wordy fighter and those who are weak will end up dead. While this approach sounded cruel for humans, it was entirely normal from saiyan perspective.

"Goku!" Bulma called and she also rushed into the room, giving the saiyan a quick hug. "Good to have you back!"

"Hey Bulma!" Goku smiled.

"Hi Vegeta!" Bulma smiled at the king, causing him to look at her confused.

She looked like she was actually happy to see him. Why? Wasn't he the one who gave out the order to sell her home planet and wasn't he the one who enslaved her along with the few remaining humans? He shrugged it off and left the room, without saying a word.

"What is his problem?" he heard Bulma's question before he got far enough from the room.

"I guess he is just Vegeta" Goku answered.


	7. Chapter 7

**It's Monday, so here is the new chapter! Thank you so much for all the reviews, I was quite happy to read them!**

While Goku took a few days off and rested after the fight, Vegeta went to train the next day. He was furious with the fact that he almost lost against the Ginyu force and now he wasn't entirely sure that Goku still had a long way to improve to beat him. During the fight he was almost as powerful as him and he had some useful techniques as well, from which Vegeta never heard before. He hit the wall with his fist and he made a big hole in it. It often happened that the training rooms were destroyed, especially when he trained.

"Geez Vegeta, you will kill somebody by accident of you keep destroying the walls!" Bulma called, who hardly had time to jump away from one of the bricks.

"Not very likely. Saiyans are not so fragile" He answered, irritated by the fact that the woman just interrupted his training.

"You see I could build a training room with walls, which can absorb energy and withstand your trainings."

"What?"

This time she got his attention. While he had more than enough slaves to rebuild the rooms, it was annoying to have to wait for them to finish. Bulma was amused by the fact how easily she got him interested if it was something about fight and training. She asked him to come with her in the lab and once they arrived there, she showed him some drafts. Truth was, she already had this idea before and made some plans, but with all the other tasks she never had the time to mention them.

"How long will it take until you finish it?"

"I think within 2-3 weeks I will be done. Then you need to get it built though and I need to run some test, but I think it will work."

Vegeta looked at the plans and while her explanation sounded plausible, he had his doubts. On the other hand she managed to do all sort of other tasks as well, where the other scientists failed and it was the only reason why he was willing to listen to her in the first place.

"Did you build some training device for Kakarott?" He suddenly asked.

Bulma looked at him and she felt how she got goose-skin as she looked into his cold onyx eyes. She considered lying, then decided against it. Truth was something, which always came out eventually, hence at least she would be over this conversation.

"Yes. I built him a gravity belt."

Vegeta looked at her somewhat socked. How came she was willingly confessing to him this? Again he had the feeling she forgot her place. When she continued to speak, Vegeta couldn't help but feel like she was reading his mind:

"Don't look at me like that! You never actually forbid me to build something other than what you or your warriors asked me, hence I never broke any of your rules."

She was right and he knew it. Also they both knew that regardless who was right, he still could punish her as he was the king. Though it was also a fact that she was too damn good to simply discharge her, he needed her knowledge and expertise.

"I want to have one as well" He finally said, grinding his teeth by the fact that he felt his hands bounded.

"I can make one until tomorrow, come by than and you can pick it up."

Bulma quite enjoyed the situation. Vegeta was always acting all mighty, like he ruled the world, yet somehow with her he behaved somewhat normal. True, he indeed owned a world; Planet Vegeta, still it irritated her to see how much the other servants and even some saiyans feared him.

For the following weeks Vegeta was a regular guest in the laboratory as he wanted to have an update every day on the new training room. One day when he entered the lab, he was shocked to see Nappa, Radditz and some other saiyans there, sitting at the big table holding small cards in their hands.

"Hey Vegeta, do you want to join?" Bulma asked.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Vegeta asked, looking at the saiyans.

"Bulma taught us some really cool card games!" Nappa answered with a bright smile.

"A what?"

"I will be back in a few, just continue without me!" Bulma looked at the others, then got up from the table and walked over to the king.

"Remember when I asked you how saiyans have fun?" She asked.

"Maybe…"

"First I thought it was just you, who was so obsessed with fighting and stuff, but as I spoke with others I realised; it was so with your entire race. Hence I decided to teach them to play cards to see if they are capable to enjoy it."

"They have more important things to do!"

"Don't be like that! Everybody needs some rest, you cannot train and fight the whole day. Or even if you physical can, it's still good to have some time off."

Vegeta looked at her, like she was crazy. Then as he looked over his men, playing with cards, they seemed… a bit like Kakarott, with his cheerful attitude. He always assumed it was somehow his stupidity, but now he wasn't that sure any more.

"Saiyans are capable of having fun." Bulma said. "I bet even you can have a good time, we just need to find a way."

"We?"

"Yes! I'm determined to prove to you, that everybody needs to have fun!"

"I don't have time to fool around!"

"Let's make a deal!"

Vegeta looked at the woman again, taken aback how she somehow continued to have her way. Sure, these were not big things, but she was the only one who even dared to bargain with him. When he realised he wasn't pissed off by this fact, he stopped for a second. He couldn't explain why he was even listening to her. He came here to get an update on the walls, but somehow, every time she managed to change the subject, even if just for a short while. He hated himself as he heard his own voice:

"What's the deal?"

Bulma's smile brightened as Vegeta took the bait. Truth was, she enjoyed his company and she was always happy to see him. As the walls will be done shorty, she needed an another excuse to make him visit her every day. When she became conscious of the fact that she was looking forward to see him, it confused her at first. She knew he was handsome, that was almost the first thing what she noticed. He was royal, there was no doubt about that as she looked at his features. It wasn't just the way how he walked or stood or behaved. She reluctantly confessed to herself that she had a crush on him. She was sure she lost her mind as even without knowing anything about the saiyan culture, she knew it was hopeless. She was a slave and he was the king. Even though Vegeta haven't chosen any mate as saiyans called their spouse, he for sure had to "marry" somebody royal. Also even in case he would be a normal fighter, it's not like he would love her, ever. What she had seen from saiyans mating; while they were bounded together until death and they never cheated on each other (as the punishment was death); they were not in love. At best it was a companionship. She has seen some saiyans lose their mates over the years and they never really grieved, just chose a new mate. Somehow she had the feeling that saiyans only mated to produce offspring, to make sure the race won't die out. Regardless how Bulma looked at her situation, it wasn't bright. Even so she decided not to think about it, just enjoy the present.

"While the gravity belt is only capable to increase the gravity by 150 times compared to what we have on Earth, I can install a gravity machine in one of the training rooms and that will be capable of increasing the gravity at least by 350 times, maybe even 500. I haven't finished all my calculations yet."

"How come you cannot do that with the belt?"

"It's complicated. But in short increasing the gravity in a closed room is much easier than increasing it around a person who is in a free, relatively endless space."

"Why would I give you something in return? You are my slave, I can command you to do it!"

"While you can command me to do things which you know I'm capable of, you cannot command me to do things, what you don't know I can accomplish. As an example: you would never asked me to build you a gravity room until now."

Regardless how he tried to find an error in her logic, Vegeta knew she was right. It made him angry to feel cornered by a mere woman, who wasn't even a fighter. He could kill her without breaking a sweat, while somehow she found her own strength and leverage despite being weak. While saiyan women could speak their opinion unless it was their mate, they never quite argued the way this woman did. Despite feeling annoyed, at some level it was refreshing and he found it enjoyable to speak with her. This, just made him annoyed even more, still didn't change his feelings.

"What do you want in return?"

"Spend a day with me and have fun! Or at least try to have fun!"

When Bulma saw Vegeta's stunned face, she added:

"It's not a date, I just want to hang around as friends."

"Friends?"

"You know, somebody with whom you are on good terms, who you like." When Bulma looked at the saiyan and saw he was still not getting it she added: "Somebody towards whom you are not hostile."

"And what's a date?"

"It's not a date!" Bulma blushed slightly.

"I heard that, but what's a date?"

"It's when… you are courting somebody to find out whether you really like him/her or not. Romantically."

"Romantically? What stupid terms are you using?!"

"You date somebody before you have sex damn it!" Bulma shouted, causing the other scientist to look at her. "And if you dare to ask me what sex is…"

"I know that!" Vegeta shouted back, his face fully red.

It had taken him completely off guard how the woman simply mentioned this to him in a room where even others were present. Saiyans never spoke of this matter in public and she was shouting. Was she really insane or she just had no shame? Bulma was amazed by the fact that she made the king blush. He was always so composed, like a statue and he was almost impossible to read, unless the emotion was anger. Why was he acting like a teenager when she mentioned sex? Sure, it wasn't the most comfortable topic to discuss, but she merely mentioned it and his face became so red what she never saw before. She tried to repress a smile when she asked:

"So, will you spend a day with me as a friend, if I build you the gravity room? While you might still consider no as an answer, let me remind you that I might have another brilliant idea what I won't share with you!"

"Damn it, you have yourself a deal. But I only go, when the gravity machine is ready and it's working as designed!"

"Sure!"

With that settled, Vegeta walked out of the room, completely forgotten the original reason why he got there in the first place and also forgetting about the saiyans playing cards.

After a few day rest, Goku continued his training and also trained Gohan. He was quite surprised about the potential what Gohan had, he was already way stronger than he himself was at age 15 when he took part in the great tournament for the second time. He ended up having a second student as well; his father who one day suddenly asked him to teach him the technique of sensing and repressing one's Ki.

"I know Vegeta figured out on his own, but I just cannot get the hang of it" Bardock confessed.

"I'm pretty sure you will master it within days" Goku smiled.

Truth was, until their fishing trip he hasn't spoken much with his father, but since then they began to have some kind of relationship. They took an another trip to the mountains just a few days ago, this time with Chichi as well and the two saiyan talked a bit, getting to know each other. Bardock remembered how disappointed he was when he heard that his second son was born with a really low power level and he even felt ashamed, when he was bought back here, failing to do even a simple mission; destroying Earth. He was nothing more than a low-class warrior. While Karris mentioned to him that Goku got stronger over the years, he never assumed how much he actually improved. By now he was stronger than Radditz and maybe even by Karris.

"Will you spare with me once you learn this technique?" Goku asked, with shining eyes.

"Why not? But I must warn you; I won't go easy on you just because you are my son!"

Bardock was almost as excited about this fight as Goku. He met challenging enemies more often than Vegeta, still this last fight with the Ginyu force was the first, what he lost. He felt angry and frustrated and he was determined to become stronger. That was the only reason why he even considered asking for help. Gohan watched with awe as the two full blooded saiyan fought against each other. At first he could follow their movement, but as they finished "warming-up", and took each other seriously, it took him a great effort, just to follow them with his eyes. After half an hour both of them were panting and bleeding from some injuries, while their uniforms became ripped. Yet, neither of them wanted to finish as they both enjoyed the challenge. As they were at almost the same power level, the fight was mostly decided how precise their techniques were and how much experience they had in real battles. They were entirely lost in the fight, when Vegeta stepped in. He felt some extremely high Ki's and while he recognised them as Kakarott's and Bardock's, they seemed too high to belong to them. When he stepped into the training room, he was amazed seeing their fight. While it wasn't a life and death fight, none of them was holding back. The fight with the Ginyu force made them stronger, as every near-death fight made the saiyans stronger once they were healed. When a couple of seconds later Bardock crashed into the wall, making a "new entrance" to the room, both he and Vegeta looked at Goku astonished. While Bardock was still able to fight, it was clear that he was defeated by his son. It was a mystery how somebody could improve so much during such a short time. Then again, Kakarott mentioned to him that he was learning from other races. Was he right? Could it be that weaker races still had some useful techniques and they could teach saiyans something new, even though they concurred them? It was a strange idea, as teaching wasn't even common among saiyans. Yet, Kakarott also said that he always had some kind of master, who taught him. Was it one of his secrets, that he was willing to ask for help? Even so, he had no pride as a saiyan. Saiyans just don't ask for help, especially not outside their race.

"Hey Vegeta!" Goku smiled at him, when he realised they had visitors. "I'm sorry for the wall!"

"Within a couple of days the new training room will be ready with the new walls and it seems that not just my elite fighters will need it, but also you." Vegeta answered.

"Yeah, Bulma told me about it. She is such a genius for thinking about it!"

Vegeta decided not to comment on that, instead he began to leave.

"Do you want to spar as well? I was shocked when I saw you fighting Jeice!" Goku asked, causing the king to stop and look back at him.

He considered the question and that alone indicated that he acknowledged Kakarott as an elite fighter. He agreed, then left the room.

"Do you want to continue?" Bardock asked, looking at his son.

"I…" he began, but he felt the pangs of hunger and finished: "I'm starving, but I' looking forward to a rematch!"

Half an hour passed and two saiyan stood in the palace, looking out of the windows, watching the small kids play. Gohan, although grew up in Planet Vegeta, heard about many games, what humans played and he was willing to teach the others as well. Right now it was raining and the small garden behind the palace was pure mud, so much that the children were ankle-deep in it. Still, they seemed to enjoy it as they were playing tag. They were laughing as one of them fall in the mud, making every inch of his clothes dirty. Even for saiyans it was hard to run at such a ground, which just made the whole play more interesting.

"I have never seen brats act like that" Bardock confessed, looking at Goku.

"No? It's quite common between human children and I think they also like it."

"Seems like it. Since Gohan started playing with them as you call it, they seem more cheerful and even more motivated to train as they knew, they can go out later to have "fun"."

"I heard Bulma made a gambling-den from the lab, at least in the afternoons. She is quite determined to teach you what fun is." The younger saiyan said.

"I never would have believed it, but the saiyans are beginning to respect her; a mere slave."

"Well, she is really something else." Goku smiled, scratching the back of his head.

"Humans are the most interesting race I have ever met."

"How come you don't have a new wife, or mate, whatever you call it…?

Bardock wasn't anticipating this sudden change of subject, or the question at all. Sure, many of the saiyans asked him the same question and he was tired of trying to find out some reason for it as the real reason was somewhat "not normal" for saiyans. Yet, maybe he could try to explain it to his son. Coming to this conclusion stirred up a memory when Radditz asked the same question and he was trying to explain the truth to him. Radditz just failed to understand it, even though he knew her. He sighed and decided to risk it again:

"I'm not sure how to explain it, as the truth sounds strange in saiyans standards. Maybe you are already aware that a saiyan is not forced to choose a mate. But when you choose a mate, it's for life, which usually ends in a couple of years as one of the "participants" dies. Mating is pre-arranged for royals and higher level fighters, why middle-level and low class warriors are free to choose among their own rank. As a low level fighter I also was free to choose, just like your mother. Yet, our parents agreed that we mate when we were only children. That's nothing special, arranged mating happens also in the low class. We only met one day before the mating and I was not sure what to expect. When I saw her for the first time I was happy that she was pretty, but that was all what I ever expected to feel. We were simply left alone in our new chambers as soon as they introduced us and I was extremely nervous. Somehow she began to talk with me and I only noticed that we still haven't officially mated, when we were talking since hours. Your mother had quite a good sense of humour, which is extremely rare among saiyans, though I have a feeling that it's something common between humans. I felt like she put some kind of spell on me and within a short time I… I grew quite found of her."

"You were in love, right?" Goku asked, finally gasping what his father was trying to say.

"Saiyans don't know this word, we hardly even use the expression "being found of somebody". So, I'm not exactly sure what love means. But whatever we felt, it's something most of the saiyans never experience…"

Bardock couldn't bring himself to reveal the fact, that he was even crying when she died. Crying was something what only little brats did, under the age of two.

"I think I know what you mean. I married Chichi because I promised her, but when I did that I though marriage was some kind of food." Goku smiled sheepishly.


	8. Chapter 8

In the next couple of weeks Bulma had her hands full with the new walls and the gravity machine. After the tests proved that the walls were as strong as she expected them to be, the slaves began to reconstruct all training room in the palace, while Bulma installed the first prototype of the gravity machine in the royal training room. This was mainly only used by Vegeta, but on rare occasions Karris or Bardock trained there as well. After the test run was a success, Vegeta spent almost every day there, only coming out when he had to plan some counter-attack against Freeza's troops or he personally had to follow up on something.

"Are you ready?" Goku asked Vegeta, when they finally had their long-awaited sparring session.

Instead of answering Vegeta decided to attack. Even until the gravity machine wasn't ready, he used the belt to train and he managed to endure 70 times higher gravity within just a few weeks. He was well aware that Kakarott already trained on 150 times higher gravity, hence he was determined to reach and surpass that as soon as possible. For their first session they sparred under the normal gravity. Even though they had seen each other fight, when they faced the Ginyu force, they couldn't fully observe the other's fighting style and tactic, due to that the fight was full of surprises for both of them. While Vegeta was stronger, Goku cornered him pretty hard with his technique learned from Kwen; doubling speed and power for a short time. Vegeta never had such a hard time keeping up with somebody; not even when he fought Jeice. During those short periods of time, Goku was just so much more powerful that he sustained several injuries. While Vegeta was frustrated the whole time, Goku was more than once smiling, like he was having the best time of his life. And in some sense, that was true. He was happy to have a stronger opponent, who seemed impossible to defeat, yet for some seconds he was just in the verge to do that.

"What's with that stupid smile?" Vegeta asked angrily, when they took a short break between two attacks.

They were still in fighting stance, yet they were just checking each other out, trying to form some kind of plan how to corner the other.

"I'm just enjoying it, that's all" Goku answered.

Yeah, Vegeta remembered how he told him how he enjoyed the fights because he could test his limits. He had an ambivalent feeling when he looked at Kakarott. For one side he was pathetic with his attitude not to kill anybody and protect the weak, while on the other hand he enjoyed fighting just as much as any other saiyan and he managed to make an impossible improvement since he arrived to Planet Vegeta. Yet, he made this improvement party because he asked for help from other races, from their slaves! Vegeta began to think about the possibility that Kakarott was right and you can learn from almost anybody, even if he is weaker. Still, this theory was so far from saiyan traditions, that he tried to convince himself that Kakarott is just crazy, while it became more and more difficult each day. Without any warning Vegeta launched a new attack and they continued to fight for an another half an hour. When they finished it, both of them were lying on the ground, trying to catch their breath. As it wasn't a real fight, there was no victor, while both of them felt that the gap between Vegeta's and Goku's power wasn't that big at all.

"Hey you!" Bulma cried out one morning, when she caught sight of Vegeta.

The king looked behind his back, assuming that the woman must have addressed somebody else, as nobody would ever dare to say "hey you" to him. Yet it turned out there was nobody else behind him; hence she was talking to him.

"Yes, you" Bulma smiled, speeding up her steps, to close the distance quicker.

"What?" he asked, rather irritated.

"Gee, you haven't seen me for days, and that's all the reaction I get?" she joked, confusing the king. "Weren't you missing me or something?"

"Missing you? You were not missing, you were working in the lab" the king answered, misunderstanding her words.

"Never mind. Do you remember our agreement? You have to spend a day with me, to have fun!"

"I don't have time right now."

"You never have time, so just make some! Take a day off! Take this day off! I sure could use some fresh air, I worked my butt off."

"Woman, you are vulgar!"

"Can we go like within 15 minutes?" she asked, fully ignoring his remark.

Vegeta sighed, but decided to be over with it. He damned the day when he actually agreed with her, yet even as a king he had to keep his word. Bulma was overjoyed when Vegeta nodded. It was clearly visible on Vegeta's face when they met up, that he just wanted to be over with the whole thing, so while they left the palace Bulma asked:

"Can't you at least be neutral about this?"

"No."

Bulma sighed, but she was determined not to let him get to her. When they exited through the gate, she activated a capsule and revealed two motorbikes.

"What the hell was that?" Vegeta asked, shocked how those things appeared out of nowhere.

"It's the capsule technology, what allows to reduce vehicles and even houses to a small size, so you can carry them with you. My father invented it when he was young and that's why our company became famous a long time ago and in the last couple of years we had way more income than what we could ever spend."

"Are you saying you were some kind of royalty on Earth?"

"We didn't really had royalties there, our society was way different than yours. But I was well-known, respected and rich. Anyhow, have you ever travelled with a bike?"

Vegeta didn't have to answer, his face expression revealed that he had no idea, what Bulma was talking about. She expected it, so she quickly explained the basics, then added:

"Even if you crash into a tree, it's not like you will be hurt, so no worries!"

When she padded Vegeta's back, the king looked like he was seriously considering blasting her away. As he mounted the bike, he began to think that he lost his mind. The woman drove way too fast and while he had to concentrate on how to operate the bike, he couldn't keep up with her at first. After the first 5 minutes he got the hang of it, so much that now the woman had to keep up with him. Driving was a strange feeling. While flying was more effective, this feeling was somehow new. Even though he could have run at the same speed, he almost enjoyed the drive. After about 30 minutes, Bulma suddenly stopped and when they got off, she packed up the vehicles. When Vegeta looked around, he realised that they were at the see, in a small bay. Of course he knew the place, as he knew every inch of his planet, but he never paid much attention to this bay.

"How do you know about this place? I don't think you left the palace even once."

"True, I only went out to the royal garden and it was just a couple of weeks ago, that I could actually go out. It took me 3 years to get adjusted to this gravity!"

Vegeta already had an idea, that the woman adjusted, when she seemed ok on the Harcoms' planet a few weeks ago. Still, it was unexpected from a mere human to get used to the outside, as most of the slaves who lived at a lower level gravity, never bothered or could adjust to the gravity on Planet Vegeta. Humans were even weaker than most of their slaves, so he never expected her to manage it. When he reached to this point, he shook it off, thinking that it was rather lame, that humans, she, couldn't manage it within weeks.

"What exactly are we doing here?" he asked.

"Do you never ever visit the beach?"

"Why would I do that?"

"To relax, swim or sunbathe."

Vegeta looked at her again, like she lost her mind, yet that was nothing compared to the fact, when she pulled out a new capsule and a changing cabin appeared out of nowhere.

"What now?"

"I will change quickly."

The saiyan had no idea what she meant by that and he was completely astonished when she appeared in her red bikini.

"Do you like it?" She asked, smiling, while she slowly turned around, so he could see her from every angle.

"What… what the hell are you doing?" Vegeta managed to ask, after he looked at her much longer than he intended to.

Regardless how he was trying to find some possible explanation for the woman's behaviour, he couldn't. He also couldn't remove his eyes from her body, as he could see almost everything! Not even the concubines dared to have so less garment on…

"What do you mean?" Bulma asked, realising how Vegeta's eyes were glued to her body.

"Why are you in your undergarments?" He shouted, managing to tore away his gaze and look into her eyes.

"It's a bathing suit, not an underwear! Gee, why would you think that I would show myself in my panties in front of you?"

Truth was, she began to enjoy the situation. Every time she confounded Vegeta, she was amused how he reacted. As the king was still not able to say anything, she added:

"Don't you think you are too full of yourself? Sure, you are handsome and quite cute, when you blush, but…"

"Cute?!" Vegeta snapped.

"Well… yes. Even though you are a jerk most of the time."

By now the king had really now idea how to react. He never met anybody, who behaved like this woman, even though he was on thousands of planets. Then again, it's not like he ever really talked with any of the other races to get to know them. Not that he wanted to know this woman! No, it was rather like she wanted to get to know him. Why? He was only half-hearing as she instructed him to change as well and she pushed him inside the cabin, throwing a swimming trunks after him. He stood there, looking at the clothing, not sure what to do. At least it wasn't an extremely short trunks as it covered half of his thigh, still… saiyans never appeared in public without a shirt.

"Come on Vegeta, with that body of yours there is no reason to be ashamed!" Bulma laughed, causing Vegeta to jump.

Finally he stepped out and he noticed somewhat amused how the woman was looking at him. Truth be told, she managed to look into his eyes much sooner, than he did. She indicated him to follow her and she placed a big bathing towel on the ground and put up a beach umbrella so, that at least half of the towel was in shade.

"Let's go into the water!" she said, grabbing Vegeta's hand and pulling him towards the sea.

She was somewhat relieved and a bit sorry, when Vegeta was so deep in the water that his body was covered until his chest. While she suspected he must have a gorgeous body under his saiyan armour, she never anticipated the sight. Why was he so handsome? If she wasn't seeing him, she suffered as she missed him. Now that they were together, she suffered, because she was aware how her feelings were doomed. Even though her brain was telling her to stop thinking about him, she just couldn't. Love wasn't something what she could control.

"Have you ever heard of surfing?" She asked, but as she looked at him, she already knew the answer.

She began to explain what it was, but halfway she decided to better show it to him. While normally she wasn't good at sports, surfing was something what she enjoyed and during the years she became quite good at it. This sea seemed ideal, as there were many waves to ride. The king had no idea, what she was trying to accomplish, when she lied down on a board and rowed to get towards the waves. When she stood up and slid down on one of them, he assumed, it's nothing special. It was unexpected that when he tried to imitate her a few minutes later, he almost instantly fell into the sea as he was trying to stand up on the board.

"Not as easy as it looks, what?" She smiled.

Vegeta decided to ignore her and he tried it again and again and again… Bulma laughed a lot as he suffered to keep himself on the board, yet only an hour passed when he got the hang of it.

"Are you sure you never surfed before?" She asked, as they walked to the shore and settled down on the towel.

"Of course I haven't done such a thing, it's stupid!"

"I could have sworn that you were enjoying it, at least in the end."

Vegeta though back on it and while he was irritated, annoyed, frustrated and stressed at the beginning, well… it became somehow better and it wasn't so bad. Ok, it was better, than "not so bad", still he won't say it out aloud. Bulma knew that he admitted at least to himself that it was fun and she decided to be satisfied with that.

"I guess you are hungry" Bulma began and activated a capsule which contained a huge picnic basket. "I asked my mother to prepare "some" meal, as she is really a great cook. I'm sure you already tasted some of her meals as she is also working with the kitchen with Chichi."

Vegeta looked confused on the food as he was not sure what to do. As a royalty, he never ate on the ground, unless it was a battlefield and he had no other choice. Yet it seemed like it was the woman's intention, as she hasn't activated any other capsules. Normally he would have objected, but he was too hungry and the food looked too good, hence he began to eat. Within 20 minutes almost all the food was gone and Bulma had no real role in it. She just ate two sandwiches and a small portion of salad, the rest was eaten by Vegeta.

"While you might like card games, I thought about an another game, what you might like; chess" Bulma began and she pulled out a chess board.

Vegeta had some doubts about the game, but as he agreed to do this "trying to have fun" thing, he tried to concentrate on what she was saying. The rules seemed simple, yet it turned out the game was more complicated than he first thought. He was outraged when he lost and demanded a re-match. Bulma was happy to agree and she put back the figures on the board. She never assumed Vegeta would be so good in his first game, she had to think really hard twice during the game to defeat him. The second game lasted almost for an hour and while Bulma won again, it was tight.

"Seems like there is something in which I can beat you" she smiled.

"Let's play once more and you will lose!" he said, grinding his teeth.

Vegeta concentrated extremely hard this time as he was determined to win. His intentions were well-known by the woman as she played more carefully now as well. Vegeta was somewhat surprised that humans with their low level technology, played such a difficult game. On the other hand, the woman proved to be better than any of the other scientist, even better than those who had a higher level technology, than humans. When he finally won, he had to smirk as the woman looked at the board like she couldn't believe her eyes.

"Seems like I beat you in your own game" he grinned.

"I won twice, you won once, but you seem to be a potentially good player, I must give you that. We can play some another time to decide who is the best."

"Now, that I know the rules, I'm confident I will always win."

"Now that I know that you know it, I will take you as a serious opponent" Bulma smiled.

They hardly noticed how the time passed and the sun was already setting at the horizon. Both changed back to their clothes and Bulma packed all of the equipment into capsules.

"We should fly back" Vegeta looked at Bulma.

"I cannot fly, son unless you are willing to carry me…" she began, but couldn't finish as Vegeta simply picked her up and flew towards the palace.

"Wow, I never assumed flying is so much fun!" Bulma cried out.

While almost all of her friends could fly, she never had the opportunity to try it before. She asked Yamcha once and he promised it to her, but it never happened. There was one another reason why she enjoyed the whole situation; she was very close to Vegeta, as he was holding her in his arms. His chest was hard as a rock and his body seemed warm, a bit warmer than the usual human body is. She asked herself whether it was just from the sun or saiyans had a higher body temperature than humans. Vegeta wasn't entirely sure that he was enjoying the situation. As he was holding the woman, he asked himself what in the world was he thinking when he decided to fly back with her. She was way too close to him and it was against saiyan customs as well. Man and woman never touched unless they were training or they were mates. Truth was, he felt drawn to her since a while now and spending a whole day at the beach just made this more intensive. He wasn't even thinking when he picked her up, it was something solely done by his body and now he partly regretted it. It was… strange that she was so near, yet it felt good. Crap! He had to focus! He got back to the question again; why had she such a big effect on him? They arrived back to the palace way too quickly and while none of them said it out aloud, they both thought the same. When Vegeta put down Bulma on the ground, she hesitated a bit, before she removed her arms from his neck. It was so nice to be in his strong arms! She wanted to take a step back as they were standing so near to each other that their bodies were almost touching, but her legs refused to obey. As she looked into his dark onyx eyes, she had to restrain herself from kissing him. As soon as she realised what she was struggling with, she tried to step back again, yet her left leg only twitched once and that was all. She felt like the air was too hot and it had not enough amount of oxygen. While she knew why she wasn't leaving, a question hit her: why wasn't he leaving? Why was he still looking at her? These were the same questions Vegeta asked himself as well; just like Bulma, he tried to step back. He was completely lost in her blue eyes, which were so unusual for saiyan standards, just like her hair. Finally Bulma was the first who broke the moment, she decided to take a risk, leaned closer and put a light kiss on Vegeta's check, saying:

"I hope you finally have an idea, what fun is."

Vegeta looked after her, unable to speak or move. Unconsciously he put his hand on his cheek as he stood there. When he realised how stupid he must look from the outside, he grunted, removed her hand and walked towards the palace as well angry with himself.

**Bulma and Vegeta had finally their first "date", I hope you enjoyed it :) Generally I'm not sure if you find Vegeta OC or not – I'm trying to write him realistic, but since history changed so much, he is not the same guy as he is in the canon-version, and others changed as well at least a bit.**

**My Dear Readers, **

**Thank you for following the story!**


	9. Chapter 9

While the Ginyu force was no longer a threat, Freeza continued his attack against the saiyans. Vegeta was well aware, that he had to face the tyrant in the near future as this war was dragging out longer than he ever intended too. Yet, since the Ginyu force, he was also well aware, that with his power, he cannot take Freeza. Thanks to the gravity room, he trained harder than ever. While Goku asked him to spar again, for the time being he refused it. Goku couldn't understand his behaviour, yet now that he proved himself in the last battle, he became one of the elite as well. That wasn't anything exciting for him, as he never really cared what his place was in saiyan society.

"You can move to the royal wing now" Bardock told him one day, after they finished their morning sparring.

"I have no issues with my chambers" Goku answered.

"Maybe it doesn't matter for you, but I believe your mate will be quite happy once she will see your new chambers."

Goku stopped and thought about it for a moment. Yeah, his father might be right; Chichi always complained how terrible it was that they had to share such a small room. It turned out, Bardock was right; Chichi was overjoyed and she alone moved all of their stuff within one hour. While mid- and low-class warriors had just a small room and used shared bathrooms, the royal accommodations were much better. They had a huge living room, with two bedrooms and a connected bathroom. The bathroom had while tiling and a huge bathtub, which was almost good for swimming. Both bedrooms had a huge king-sized bed and they were covered with some fine carpet. Also, while normal rooms had no decoration, this quarter had some paintings on the wall and two horse-shaped sculptures next to the entrance. As an additional reward, Chichi was no longer working in the kitchen as a slave; she could choose which tasks she wanted to do. Normally women fought alongside with men, but as she wasn't a saiyan, she was never sent on missions; hence she needed to have some other chores.

"Are you ready for the new mission?" Karris asked as he came to Goku's chamber to inform him about their new assignment.

"I'm!" he smiled. "I had nothing to do since weeks and I was beginning to miss the action!"

"Maybe you should also bring Gohan. This won't be a bloody mission and it's about time he sees some actions."

Gohan was thrilled, when he heard the news and he was jumping up and down, while they walked towards the spaceships. True, he was only just 3, but most of the saiyans were sent out to missions shortly after they were born and those few higher levels who remained on the planet usually had their assignments at 2. Gohan was somewhat jealous when he heard their stories and he couldn't believe that finally he was also leaving the planet. Goku couldn't help, but feel a little nostalgic as he once again set foot on Orion. It was his first assignment and now he was back with Karris and Gohan to protect it again. This time though the Orions were his friends and now he was stronger than Karris. He also managed to convince him to spar a few times and while he was challenging, it was clear for both of them, who was stronger. Karris also remembered on their first mission and though about how he assumed Goku was just some crazy guy, who will be killed soon. Yet now, within just 3 years he improved so much more, than he thought it was possible and earned not just his respect, but the others' as well. He was no longer the saiyan who failed his mission, to destroy Earth; he was the saiyan who, despite born as a low-class warrior, managed to became one of the elites. Not even Bardock managed to pull it off within such a short time and he was the second best, following Vegeta. Karris wanted to turn on his scouter, than he remembered he didn't need it any more as he also learned how to sense Ki. They soon reached Freeza's troops, who were torturing some of the children, while the parents stood there, unable to do something. As the soldiers saw the saiyans, most of them became pale, while the Orions were happy and welcomed them. They considered Goku as their friends and Karris also never hurt them in the past. As the two grown up saiyans fought the soldiers, they allowed Gohan to also take out his part. Gohan first had no idea what to do and he froze as one of the soldiers targeted him. He was sure he will die, but Goku's energy beam hit the soldier and it flew past to him, crashing into a rock.

"I'm here if you need help" Goku called, encouraging his son.

Gohan relaxed a bit, knowing that his father was keeping an eye on him. While he fought all his life, training was nothing compared to a real fight. Not because the soldiers were powerful; most of them were no match for him, it was rather the feeling, that they wanted to kill him for real. It was not something what he ever felt before. Yet, after deflecting the first couple of attacks, Gohan relaxed a bit and after a while he concentrated so much on the fight that he had no idea what was going on around him otherwise. Karris watched with awe as Gohan fought; he was more skilled that anybody he has seen at his age. Truthfully, he could have taken on a low level grown up saiyan any time. That again pointed his attention to Goku. He trained his son from the beginning and he also knew that Goku asked for help from their slaves as well. Despite all saiyan customs, it proved that he was right, teaching and learning were working wonders.

"Did you seriously took Gohan to a mission without my permission?" Chichi shouted, when Goku got back with Gohan to their chambers.

"It was a sudden idea and you were busy" Goku tried to explain, while scratching the back of his head.

"I wasn't that busy!"

"Chichi you knew that he will be assigned to missions, it's not like…"

"Sure, but I expected that it would be rather later than sooner and anyhow you should have told me!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Are you all right, my little angel?" Chichi asked, crouching down to Gohan.

"Yes, I'm fine" Gohan answered.

Almost a whole year passed and the war went on. Some saiyans were searching for Freeza so they would always know where he was, in order to make any necessary precaution in case needed. Goku convinced Vegeta to train together at least once in a while and while the king was unwilling at the beginning, he saw the huge opportunity in it later. When he was not on missions, he was in the training room and only on rare occasions did he attend to his duty as a king.

"Check-mate!" Bulma called with a satisfied smile on her face.

Vegeta looked at the board, trying to find a way out, but she was right, he lost. After their first attempt to have fun, somehow it became a custom that occasionally they spent time together. Sure, at given projects Vegeta also came to the lab to follow-up, but occasionally they had some non-date dates. While Bulma knew it won't progress beyond friendship, she still enjoyed those short period of times. Yet, recently she asked herself, why was Vegeta willing to spend time with her? Sure it wasn't much; just a couple of hours at every week; they had no full-day trip since they visited the beach, but still. They were sitting in the royal garden, under a willow, playing chess.

"I'm still leading by 4" Vegeta said, standing up.

"Even so, I'm more than a wordy opponent" she smiled also getting up and stretching.

"Maybe"

"Can I touch your hair?" Bulma suddenly asked.

"What?" Vegeta asked, taken aback by this sudden change of topic and also by the question itself.

"Since a while I'm wondering what makes your hand stand up. I mean it contradicts gravity so much."

Vegeta was not sure what to say and he just stood there, when the woman stepped closer and run her fingers through his hair. He almost felt like her touch electrocuted him.

"Wow, it's so soft!"

Before Vegeta could stop himself, he touched her hair. While she wanted to know what makes his hair standing up, he wondered, why her hair was not that way. Every saiyan had a strange hairstyle with human measurements, but her hair was just as strange for saiyans. Bulma smiled as his fingers touched her and their eyes locked. While they were always keeping a safe distance for a while now as both of them craved the other, somehow they ended up really close now. Bulma felt how her heart began to beat like she was running and she was unable to stop herself, she leaned closer and kissed Vegeta. She was expecting him to push her away, yet only after a second, he was kissing her back passionately. Bulma wrapped her arms around his neck, while Vegeta grabbed her waist and pulled her closer so that their bodies were pressed together. He felt like he will explode from all the tension and he had no idea how a kiss could affect him so much. It's not like he haven't kissed before. There were planets with concubines, even if it was something what never existed on Planet Vegeta. As for Bulma, she also couldn't understand the feeling, what this kiss awakened in her. She was half conscious how aroused she suddenly became, yet it was still a shock when she felt Vegeta's erection pressed against her. Vegeta's hand travelled to her ass and as he grabbed it, Bulma moaned with pleasure. Suddenly he became full aware what they were doing and he quickly withdraw, pushing her away slightly. They were both out of breath, their faces slightly red and they looked at each other like they couldn't believe what happened just now.

"I…" Bulma began, but stopped.

What was she planning to say? That she was sorry? Hell, she wasn't sorry at all; it was the best kiss in her life! Then was she planning to confess her love? Also not a good idea. Sure he was kissing her back, but it wasn't like he was feeling the same. For him it just might have been a challenge to get her. Though he never seemed the type and Bulma has never seen him with a woman, at least not that way.

"I should go now" she heard herself saying, then left quickly.

She hated herself for running away, yet she felt weak to face the saiyan right now. She needed time to figure out what the heck was going on between them. She tried to tell herself they were simply friends, while she knew it was a lie. She was friends with Goku, but not with Vegeta. They were close and she was in love, yet… he was still very distant and hardly ever showed his emotions. It was also clear, that he had a low opinion about every race, who were not strong enough to match the saiyans, still… she felt like he respected her expertise and knowledge. Vegeta was at least as confused as Bulma, maybe even more. During the last year he began to enjoy her company and their time together. He admitted that she had an effect on him, like nobody else had, but he couldn't define what he felt for her. And this kiss… how could he let it happen? He was the king, royal, while she was just a human. The most frightening thing was, that it wasn't just physical craving. Or… well he wanted to touch her, feel her and kiss her… but… He mentally punched himself for allowing his thought to run wildly. He had to avoid her, at least for a couple of days, until he can gather his thoughts.

While both Bulma and Vegeta wanted to keep a safe distance, it seemed like fate had other intentions. The next day an alien spaceship landed on Planet Vegeta and a 2 meters high blue humanoid stepped out of it, who had pointy ears and long red claws. The king had no idea what to think, when his guards led this creature to the throne room. He could sense the it's Ki and it wasn't very impressive so he ordered the guards to release him.

"What do you want?" He asked, looking down at him from his throne.

The blue man looked around the room first, before speaking. The room wasn't extravagant but it was huge. There were pillars holding the ceiling and from the door until the throne a red carpet covered the way. It was simple but exactly this simplicity implied strength. The throne was raised slightly higher then the ground and 6-7 carpeted stair risers leaded to it. The carpet had one golden streak on each side along the way. The throne was mainly red and not over designed. Here on the wall there were some pictures from the members of the royal family.

"My name is Al and I'm from Planet Aoi. I came here to ask for your help."

"For my help?" Vegeta ased with a smirk. "Are you sure you are on the right planet?"

"I know that you are saiyans and it was my intention to land here."

"You should also know, that we are not the kind who is helping others. Just by coming here you are risking your life."

"I'm well aware of that, but I just had to take the chance. We heard that you are the only race who is capable to fight and win against Freeza's troops. I know you had some casualities, still it's a fact that you are not just defending this planet but 20 others as well; your colonies. We are a big race, we live on 5 planets what are located next to each other and a couple of months ago Freeza tried to invade one of them. We have an advanced technology, yet even so we are loosing the war. As soon as they take the first planet, they won't stop until they invade all 5 of our worlds. If you are willing to help us, we can supply you with technology. I'm quite sure your scientist will agree that we have something to offer."

Vegeta leaned back to think about it. While saiyans never protected anybody before, the main reason why they killed races was to get money or technology. Gaining that by helping others was something, what never happened before, yet it also made sense.

"How will I know in advance, that your technology is indeed any use for me?" Vegeta finally asked.

"I have a blueprint from one of our engines for spaceships. I'm confident regardless what technology you have, this will be much better."

"Ask the woman to come here!" the king ordered Karris, who was quetly listening the whole time.

When Bulma stepped to the throneroom, she was already aware why she had to go there as Karris told her quickly. It was the first time that she entered the throne room and she looked around curiously. When her eyes met with the king's, she quickly looked away and decided to study Al instead.

"I'm not a scientist, hence I cannot answer your questions, also this plan is not sufficient for you to replicate the technology, yet you have to see the potential." Al explained it to her and handed over a couple of papers.

Bulma looked at the plan with growing interest. At the first minute it became clear that it was more advanced, than what she had ever seen. Vegeta stood up from the throne and slowly walked next to them, also looking at the plans.

"Woman, what do you think?" He asked after a few minutes.

"Wow, it's impressive. With this engine your spaceships would be at least 3 times quicker, only using half the amount of fuel."

"Seems we might have a deal after all." Vegeta looked at Al.

"Oh, that was quick! I was expecting a group of scientists checking the plans for hours until they give you back the confirmation."

"She is the best and if she is saying it's good than that's enough for me." Vegeta shrugged. "Now we just need to discuss what technology you are willing to give, apart from this engine."

"You can come back with me on my planet and we can agree on something. There you and your scientist can also see the machines in question."

A day later 3 spaceships left the planet; one with Al heading for his home planet followed by an another occupied by Bulma and Vegeta, who were checking out the technology and made the deal and a third one with Goku, Karris, Gohan, Radditz and Cumber. Cumber was one of the women currently among the elite fighters. She was slim but muscular and while her long black hair also stood in all direction, she managed to make a ponytail from it, making it less outstanding for human standards. Originally Bardock would have join them as well, but he had an another urgent assignment what he had to take. While Radditz was only in the mid-class and Gohan had no real "ranking" yet, the saiyans were positive that even this force was an overkill for Freeza's troops, but as Al wanted to won the war as soon as possible, Vegeta decided to send all of them. As soon as Vegeta and Bulma left the planet in the spaceship, they both became quiet, more than they usually were. While they normally enjoyed each other's company, they were not glad at all that this journey took 3 whole days. Bulma was prepared that they won't have much interaction, so she packed her computer but she was too nervous to work and she ended up starring at the screen. She risked a look at Vegeta, who was just standing at the windows, looking out, but she doubted he was really seeing what he was looking at as he seemed lost in his own world. Vegeta felt her eyes on him and looked at her. She flinched, but held his gaze, while she wondered why it was that even with all the tension between them, it felt right to be with him? Like they were destined to be together… While she was in love with Yamcha for years, she never felt something like this before, this… her love for Vegeta was completely new, deeper than she ever thought possible. She was a fan of romantic novels, but reading some books, she felt like the writers were aggravating, describing how love felt. Now she thought they had no idea, what love really felt like! Sure, she wasn't a novelist, yet she doubted that even with professional writing skills she could have described her feelings. Vegeta was angry with himself and he had no idea why he couldn't act normal around her. Sometimes it was hard in the last year as well, but now after the kiss… he had no idea what to think.

"Are you hungry?" Bulma asked, breaking the silence.

"Yes" He answered.

"Good, because even though I told my mother there is plenty of food in the ship, she packed a lot; saying that this was for sure more delicious than what we could possibly find here."

Bulma activated a capsule, revealing a huge picnic basket. While she pulled out the meals and put them on the table, Vegeta sit down on a chair, observing the dishes. While he wasn't the type who gave compliments even just by thinking it, he couldn't deny that the blond woman's cooking was the best what he ever tasted. When they began to eat, Bulma decided to act as nothing happened and Vegeta was glad to play along.

"I'm beginning to enjoy even my routine tasks now" she began to break the silence. "After a year of education all the other scientists are more or less capable of doing basic things and they even had some good ideas! You should really think about an education system in general."

"Were you learning everything in school on Earth?" The king asked.

"Mostly yes. We even had schools for material arts. You might not think that it's effective…

"For the first time, I'm not sure what to think. Since Kakarott is training with Karris and Bardock they improved a lot and he…"

"He became an elite fighter from a low-class within 3 years. Even you have to give him credit for that! And I think you do, otherwise you wouldn't train with him. Anyhow, I think you should try out the schooling system."

"How did it look like in practice?"

"It's rather difficult" Bulma began then she talked about it for hours.

Every time Vegeta heard about Earth, he couldn't help to think that humans were more advanced than he gave credit for them. It stirred an another question; how many more races were actually advanced what the saiyans eradicated? And why the hell was he asking these questions from himself? Wasn't it the saiyan way of thinking that the races who are weaker, should die as only the strongest can remain?

"Humans were weak" he stated out of the blue.

"You think so? We were more advanced than you saiyans; the only reason why you still have a higher level of technology is because you bought it. Humans never bought anything from other races, they reached their current level on their own."

While Bulma was arguing, she wasn't angry; not any more. One side of the story was that saiyans never thought about the fact that killing weaker races is wrong and even though she already tried to explain this to Vegeta since a while now, he still didn't see her point. The other side was that she knew about the Dragon Balls and although they haven't made any visible progress going to Namek, she was sure one day they will restore the planet and bring back all the people to life. Hence when she talked about it, it was for the sake of argument, not because of hate or rage. When the king realised it, he had no idea what this was all about. He had no idea about the Dragon Balls, hence first he assumed the woman agreed that only the strongest can survive. Yet, later he realised she was still disagreeing with the saiyan methods, what left him confused.

"What good did all that technology do?" He asked. "You said this Al has the most advanced technology what you have ever seen, yet they need our help."

"How do you define strength?"

"How do I…?"

"You heard it. Do you think that somebody can only be strong if he is physically strong? Is that really all?"

These questions has taken aback Vegeta. The way she was twisting the words made him think about it seriously. As he wasn't answering, Bulma continued:

"Do you think me weak, Vegeta?"

"No" He answered, before he could stop himself.

"Why not? You could kill me without breaking a sweat! Heck, even a third-class warrior could kill me easily."

"I would never hurt you" he whispered.

"Why not? If you just met me at the first time, you would have no idea about my technical knowledge, hence I would be somebody with an extremely low power level. How do you know what somebody might be capable of just by checking his power level?"

Both remained silent for a long time, lost in their own thoughts. Vegeta saw her point and that frightened him as it was questioning all his and his race's concept of looking at the world. It wasn't the first time they talked about this, yet it was the first, that he was giving in. Why? Was it because he was stubborn all that time or was it rather because he was changing? 'Cause he couldn't help to think that he was. Both Kakarott and the woman were affecting him, more than he ever realised before. Bulma smiled, thinking that given enough time she just might win this argument at the end. She never expected Vegeta to say out aloud that he wasn't thinking her weak or that he wouldn't hurt her. Sure it was obvious, still he wasn't the type who stated even these obvious facts.


	10. Chapter 10

At the end, the 3 days flew by and before they realised, they were landing on the planet. Al led them into their meeting room and the discussions began, while at the same time the 5 other saiyans landed on the other planet.

"I can sense several Ki's belonging to Freeza's soldiers" Goku called as they stepped out of the spaceship.

"And they are scattered around the planet" Bardock nodded.

"Crap, they are killing off Ali's people even at this moment, we must hurry!" Karris said, grinding his teeth.

"Relax, we are not paid by the number of weaklings we save!" Cumber smiled ironically.

"Even so, let's split up to cover more ground!" Bardock ordered.

While Karris was a rather peaceful saiyan, not enjoying killing "people", Bardock wasn't enjoying it either, since the incident with the creature, whose visions he inherited as a punishment. Since he has seen his own race die, killed by Freeza, he had a good enough idea, what his targets must felt. He never said it out aloud; unlike Karris, he didn't want to appear weak. At least until recently. Somehow meeting and getting to know his second son changed that, so much that instead of invading planets, he also chose missions where they just had to fight with Freeza's army.

"Geez, don't tell me you are beginning to think like those fools!" Cumber snapped, pointing at Karris and Goku. "Especially your second son is a fool."

"Don't you dare to insult him!" Bardock shouted. "He is an elite fighter, just like you and he can kick your ass any time."

"I doubt that" Cumber shouted back.

"Guys!" Goku stepped between them. "We are supposed to fight with Freeza's troops, not with each other. Just relax!"

"You just don't tell me what to do!" Cumber stormed off.

"I will go after her." Karris said and left with Radditz.

Bardock, Goku and Gohan took the opposite direction and began to search for the enemy. Gohan was quickly used to the combats and while he was just a demi-saiyan, he also enjoyed it somewhat. Every time the enemy spotted him they though he was just an innocent small child, more so as he was able to repress his Ki. Before the enemy realised their mistake, they were already lying unconscious on the ground with serious injuries.

"I cannot help to think that he might end up stronger than we" Bardock said as he watched Gohan defeating the last 3 soldiers.

"He is already much stronger than I was at his age" Goku nodded.

"I assumed that being partly human would decrease his strength, but if something, it just improved it. That's more than strange."

"Was there no other saiyan who mated with an another race?"

"No. Cross-breeding is prohibited among saiyans, mainly out of the fear that mixing blood would decrease our strength as a race, what's the most important feature as we are warriors. Apart from that, saiyans are not compatible with most of the other races."

Bulma couldn't believe her eyes when she saw one of the labs on planet Aoi. She had no idea about half of the things and the scientist there had a completely different way of thinking. When she checked out some of the science books, she felt like she came to the future, at least 100 years ahead of her time. After the tour, Al left them alone to discuss what they wanted and he assigned them two rooms. While the inhabitants were different from humans, their buildings looked like the ones on Earth. The headquarters reminded Bulma to the old castles from middle age, yet while it had rustic walls and it was built on a mountain, it had modern technologies inside.

"What do you think?" Vegeta asked, remaining in Bulma's room after Al left.

"Whatever they are willing to give, we should take it. Even from their lamps I could learn a lot" She explained, fighting with the urge to take the thing apart.

"Are you sure?"

"You told Al that I'm the best and you trust my judgement, so why are you asking me this? I'm sure."

"Ok, than what would you need?"

"Truthfully everything. The engine was awesome, their generator increases electricity like nothing else I have ever seen. They also seem to possess an energy source, which seems similar to electricity, yet it's more effective. I'm even impressed by the irrigator system, what was on one of the drafting table. While I never participated in intergalactic negotiation, I doubt they will be willing to give so much, so I would just simply bring back one of their scientists.

"Just a scientist, without plans?"

"Yes. Those who don't know that much about science might think it's a bad choice, but believe me it's not! Also, they might have to pay a yearly fee or something as Freeza's troops will sure try to come back and they will constantly need your help."

"Maybe protecting is a much better business then selling planets" Vegeta smirked.

Before dinner was ready, Bardock returned with his team, announcing victory. They had some injuries, but none of them were serious with saiyan measurements. The Aois celebrated the saiyans, like they were their superheroes and for the first time ever, they were. Vegeta and Bulma negotiated with Al the whole evening until they reached the final agreement. They got the plans for the engine, the energy source and they also managed to get a scientist getting back with them for a year.

This agreement was the first of many what the saiyans made in the next year. While it was common knowledge in the universe that the saiyans put up a fight with Freeza, the news that they are willing to protect others from him as well (for some payment) spread like fire and more and more ambassadors visited Planet Vegeta with similar requests. Due to this new "branch" Karris was appointed to ambassador, what saiyans never ever needed before. Business was thriving, but the fighters were busier than ever. While so far they only had to protect their own colonies, within a year the planets increased to 92, instead of the original 20. As mostly they traded for technology, Bulma had to travel with Vegeta to most of the planets, while Karris kept in touch with the already existing "customers".

"I think this year we have spent almost as much time on other planets as on Planet Vegeta" Bulma said, leaning against the rail.

They were on her balcony in the hotel, where they spent the last 2 days to sign the contact with the Turons. It was already late, yet both of them wanted to have some fresh air. By now Planet Vegeta had a second ambassador to negotiate contracts, a first-class saiyan woman named Mato, who was Karris' mate. Bulma also delegated her task as the technical advisor to Hark, who learned a lot since he came to the saiyan's planet and she also learned much from him. Yet, at some difficult cases Vegeta visited the race in question and then mostly Bulma went with him. They always kept a safe distance and never mentioned what happened a year ago, but even so, sometimes they needed every willpower to resist each other. It was dangerous to be together, but not seeing each other wasn't an option for either of them.

"I should have appointed Mato sooner" Vegeta nodded.

"I'm glad though that we had to come here. I like spending time with you as from time to time I feel like you are avoiding me."

"I'm not avoiding you!"

"I'm not sure about you, but sometimes I feel like I won't be able to resist you" Bulma whispered, stepping closer, putting her hand on his.

"Bulma, you shouldn't… we can't…"

"What is it exactly, what we can't? What are we doing at all? We behave like friends, but we both know it's not friendship… it's more! Don't tell me that you are not feeling something for me!"

"Even if… I'm the king and I cannot choose you as my mate; you are human."

"Does it mean that you also love me?"

"Saiyans don't love" Vegeta blushed.

"That's bullshit! Tell me, that you don't feel anything for me!

Vegeta had no idea what to say. He knew what he should say; he should say he still despised her as she was only a weak human, but that wasn't true anymore. She was making him crazy every day and it just worsened as time passed. He wasn't happy without her and couldn't be happy with her… yet he still waited for the next time when he can see her. Was that what humans called love? He opened his mouth, desperate to deny it, but his body betrayed him. Instead of saying something, he pressed her against his body and kissed her, enjoying when she kissed him back almost instantly. It was wrong; she was a human and saiyans mustn't breed with other races, but he just couldn't control himself. Bulma was confused, as it was almost like Vegeta confessed his feelings for her as he never denied that he felt something. By him, not denying something almost meant that he agreed with it. Yet every time she felt like he cared for her, even just a little bit, he began to avoid her or be colder than he normally was. It was like he couldn't accept his own feelings. Bulma felt how Vegeta's hand travelled to her breast and he grabbed it slightly through her shirt. At that moment she felt like nothing mattered, even if he didn't love her, she simply wanted to be with him, feel him... she couldn't care less what will happen tomorrow. She felt as he picked her up and he carried her inside the room. She was only half-conscious about the fact that slowly they got rid of their clothes and Vegeta was lying on top of her when they had only their underwear on. She felt his heat radiating and as their skin touched she felt sheer pleasure. She run her fingers through his muscular chest and it was almost like touching rocks. While he was strong, he was surprisingly gentle with her, making sure not to cause her pain. Vegeta desperately tried to gain back the control over his body, but it just felt too good to stop. Also, it's not like she was not willing, she craved him. Even so, it was wrong, at least the way they were doing it. With all his willpower he broke the kiss and climbed down from her. As he was lying on his back, trying to get his breathing under control he felt her disappointed look. He grabbed her hand as she wanted to get up and pulled her close to him, so her head was on his arm and they were facing each other. Damn, it was extremely hard to concentrate as she only had her underwear on and she had a great body!

"What are you doing?" Bulma asked confused.

While she was frustrated that he simply stopped, she never expected him to prevent her leaving. Not that she truly wanted to leave!

"That's it, I have no idea!" He sighed.

"Just a minute ago you seemed like you know exactly what you were doing" She smiled, no longer angry, rather just curious what will happen next.

"Saiyan customs are different from yours. We don't go on dates; saiyans simply mate. It's either pre-arranged or among lower classes they are free to choose."

"Come to think of it, you never told me what the actual mating ceremony is."

"It's nothing like your stupid weddings. Once two saiyans… have sex, they are mated. And mating is for life; until one of the counterparts dies. There is no exception."

"Are you telling me, that you stopped, because you don't want to take me as your mate?"

It was starting to make sense to Bulma. She knew saiyans had strict rules regarding many things, yet she had no idea that mating was taken so seriously. It was like in the dark ages...

"I cannot take you as my mate."

"What?"

This answer astonished Bulma, because it sounded like Vegeta wanted her and not just physically. It almost sounded like a proposal with human standards. He didn't say he didn't want to take her, he just stated he cannot…

"It's prohibited to mate other races. We have to keep our bloodline clear to preserve our unique physical abilities as we are a warrior race. Nobody can take the risk to have a weak heir who has limited abilities. Our survivor depends on our strength. Most likely mating with others wouldn't even produce an heir and we have so many losses that we cannot allow ourselves not to reproduce."

"Goku married Chichi and she is not a saiyan either."

"In order to keep him under control, I had to keep her alive. Besides, he had no idea, that he was a saiyan."

"See? He is still an exception. Also it's not like Gohan ended up being a disaster. I spoke with Goku and his son has more potential than he ever imagined. Even Bardock said that he just might end up the strongest saiyan ever; being a demi-saiyan."

"That doesn't prove anything."

"Apart from this all, aren't you the king? I thought kings can do whatever they want; break the rules or even change them!"

Vegeta remained silent, fighting with himself. While he already got it from the other elite fighter that it was time for him to choose a mate and have an heir, he just wasn't willing to mate one of the royals or elite fighters. For years he had no real reason why he didn't choose a mate, but in the last years he at least subconsciously knew why; he wanted Bulma…

"It's not that simple."

"Maybe not, but I… I want to be with you!"

"I still don't know why. It was my order to sell your home planet and kill all the people there. Also you know how saiyans are; we kill for a living and you told me countless time that you find these actions wrong."

"I think you wouldn't give the same order now regarding Earth."

"That doesn't change the fact that I did."

Here it was again; Vegeta wasn't denying it, giving the impression that she was right.

"It counts. Also in the last year saiyans did nothing else but protect others, which would have seemed very unlikely before. I think there is still hope for you."

Vegeta looked into her blue eyes and he had no idea, what to say. The whole situation was impossible to begin with.

"Can you at least stay here a little longer?" Bulma asked, snuggling closer to him.

Vegeta wanted to say no, he knew he had to leave, but couldn't. They spent the night together; sleeping. When he king woke up the next morning and saw Bulma sleeping next to him, first he had no idea what happened. Then it came back to him and he signed with relief, knowing that technically nothing happened. They just talked and somehow both of them fell asleep.

"I could get used to this" Bulma smiled as she woke up a couple of minutes later, stroking Vegeta's hair.

"To what?"

"Waking up next to you in the morning."

Bulma enjoyed looking at Vegeta finding his clothing and watching him dress. Today they had to travel back to Planet Vegeta and she felt a bit sorry for it. On the other hand, she had a lot of work waiting for her and since she was actively working with advanced alien machines and some scientist, she enjoyed her work more than ever. Thanks to the Aoi technology, the trip back only took 12 hours instead of 3 days. When they boarded the ship, Bulma was lost deep in her thought for hours. They were almost ready to visit Namek, she finally gathered enough information and built a ship for the trip in full secret. Figuring that stealing a ship would draw some attention, but using one which wasn't built at all (at least to the other's knowledge) was the best way to keep their mission in secret. The problem was rather that the guards were doubled due to Freeza's attack on Wyvr and it was almost impossible for Piccolo and Krillin to escape.

"Say Vegeta; if there was a way to restore Earth, would you allow us to do it?" She asked suddenly.

"It's not destroyed." Vegeta answered, but he had no idea where this was going.

"True. But I don't want the occupants to leave; it's their home now, even though they got it the wrong way. So let me rephrase the question! Let's assume there is a way to make an exact copy of Earth as it was before Radditz came and we could bring back all the people to life; could we do it?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Just answer first and then I will explain the whole story!"

"Humans mean no danger for saiyans, so it doesn't make any difference whether they live or not."

"I take it as a yes." Bulma smiled, then she explained everything what she knew about the Dragon Balls.

"Is this some kind of stupid fairy tale?" The king looked at her with clear doubt in his eyes.

"It's the truth. We used it a couple of times and it's working."

"And these things are still on Earth?"

"Technically yes, but those are not working any more as Kami merged with Piccolo" she began, but as Vegeta looked at her like she was crazy she said: "It's a long story, but I know where we can find working Dragon Balls."

There was a long silence as the saiyan was trying to make some sense of the whole story. It sounded impossible, yet why would she lie to him? There was nothing what she could gain, unless:

"Are you trying to escape?"

"No" Bulma answered shocked.

It never occurred to her, that she would just simply leave and it wasn't even her, who wanted to go. As the king looked at her, he knew she was telling the truth. He had the feeling he was crazy when he asked:

"Who exactly wants to go to this other planet?"

"Well, I guess you cannot spare Goku as the war is more intensive than ever. But you might allow Gohan to go and I have two friends from Earth; Piccolo and Krillin, who are on the planet Wyvr. They are both fighters. As for me… I don't want to go, but I'm not sure if I can teach them how to navigate a spaceship."

"What guarantee do I have that you will come back?"

"Oh, you should know by now that you cannot get rid of me so easily. I meant it, when I said yesterday that I want to be with you." Bulma smiled and kissed him lightly, pulling back before he could react.

She wasn't sure that she could control herself otherwise and she understood very well, that they couldn't just end up having sex on the floor of the spaceship, even though just as she thought about it, she had to restrain herself not to tear off his armour there and then. Vegeta had similar thoughts as he had to look away from her to keep a clear head. Finally he said:

"I cannot spare Kakarott, but you may go with Gohan and those other two. I trust these creatures won't put up a fight."

"Thank you Vegeta!" She called out and hugged him tightly.

It was a good think that he was a saiyan as she never had to worry to hurt him accidentally. When they arrived back, she rushed to tell Goku the news.

**My Dear Readers! I would really appreciate some feedbacks now :D I mean a lot happened in this chapter. What do you think about "sort of" making the saiyans good guys? Protecting planets for technology? And yeah, Vegeta allowed Bulma to go to Namek. Unexpected, isn't it? **

**I'm a good girl; updating my story as promised, actually twice a week (and this week I even wrote an unrelated one-shot) so, throw me some bones, please! :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Happy Easter! :) Thank you so much for the reviews!**

"What? Vegeta simply allowed it? Goku asked, shocked.

"Pretty much, yes."

"Are you together with Vegeta?" Chichi asked, who was also listening to the conversation.

They were in their chambers and she just bought some tea and cookies.

"What?" Cried out Goku in surprise, while Bulma bit her lower lip.

"Oh Goku, you are still so naïve sometimes!" Chichi smiled, sitting down on the coach next to her husband. "Don't you see how much time they are spending together since… well at least since the saiyans signed their first contract with Al? But come to think of it, I think even before that, something was going on."

"You and Vegeta?" Goku asked, trying to imagine it.

It was hard as Vegeta seemed so distant and cold, while Bulma… let's just say she was Bulma. Yamcha had it pretty hard to endure her from time to time and they were in constant fights. Vegeta had not even half the patients or understanding of Yamcha…

"I…" Bulma began, then stopped as she was not sure what to say. "We are not dating because saiyans don't date."

"Are you telling me that you are just sleeping together?" Chichi asked, causing Goku to gape at her.

"I wish!" Bulma said, then blushed a bit and tried to correct it. "I mean, it's difficult. Anyhow, we cannot just have sex as it would mean that he took me as a mate and saiyans cannot do that."

"My father mentioned something like this before, I think" Goku nodded.

"Back to the topic of Namek" Bulma said a bit louder than necessary "when can you bring back Krillin and Piccolo here so we can leave?"

"I can get them tomorrow, first thing in the morning so we should be back in the evening." Goku answered, then all of them looked at the door as Gohan entered the room.

"Oh yeah, one more thing" Bulma said, looking at the young demi-saiyan. "I would like for Gohan to come as well."

"Come where?" Gohan asked, stepping closer and sitting down.

"To Namek" Goku smiled. "We can finally go."

"Great! Does it mean I can finally see Earth?" Gohan smiled.

"Just hold on for a second!" Chichi called. "I won't let you take Gohan, specially not without Goku!"

"I cannot go with them as I'm always on some missions" Goku looked at his wife.

"Why can't you just go with Krillin and Piccolo?" Chichi looked at Bulma, like she was planning to kill her with her gaze.

"We never know what is on Namek…" Bulma began but she already knew it was the wrong answer, before Chichi began to shout:

"Exactly! It might be overwhelmed with Freeza's soldiers or worse! I cannot let you take my baby!"

"But mum, I'm not a baby any more" Gohan interrupted causing everybody to look at him.

It was rare that he objected if Chichi told him something; she was controlling him, just like she was controlling Goku.

"I'm already 5 years old and in the last 2 years I was on countless missions. I'm strong and they will need me!" Gohan continued, holding her mother's gaze.

Chichi sighed. She was well aware that her son was a fighter and a good one in that. While she loved Goku the way he was and accepted it, she never wanted Gohan to be like him. Yet they had no other choice on Planet Vegeta and Gohan simply had to become a fighter. It wouldn't frustrate Chichi so much in itself, but Gohan was enjoying this kind of life, just like his father. Sure, he was forced to fight, but it was in his blood and sometimes Chichi wondered how would have their life's changed in case they remained on Earth. She knew that while she would have objected with all her might, Gohan would have learned to fight anyway. It seemed inevitable. Later that day, although she was early in bed, trying to sleep, she just couldn't. Goku was surprised when he entered their bedroom later, ready to go to sleep and he saw her sitting in the bed, with her back leaning against the wall.

"Can't you sleep?" Goku asked, climbing into the bed, sitting in front of her.

Chichi looked at him. He was only wearing a boxer, leaving most of his muscular body uncovered. She really loved him, almost from the first time they met and during the years this love just became deeper. Sure he had some annoying threats, but he was a good man; even willing to sacrifice himself to save others. Yet, after they got married and settled down, sometimes Chichi felt that Goku wasn't entirely there with her. While that year was the happiest time in her life, she couldn't help to feel that he was sometimes bored. Sure, he trained but before the marriage he was always on some kind of adventure, always on the way or training and he just wasn't cut for a peaceful life. She asked herself whether he would really stayed with her living on Earth or he might have run off, chasing a new adventure, leaving her behind. She knew he loved her. Even though she unwillingly tricked him into a marriage, he grown to love her and she was lucky to have him. Still, she couldn't get rid of the feeling that Goku might not have been able to stay with her forever.

"Chichi?" Goku leaned closer to her, looking into her eyes from a close range.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about something" She smiled, coming back to the presence. "Say Goku, if the Earth will be restored, will we go home?"

The saiyan looked at her wife and he was not sure what to say. If she asked him this question 5 years ago, when they arrived, he would have said yes, without any hesitation. But so much changed during that time. While he despised his own race at the beginning, he grown to like them, at least most of them and for some strange reason they became the protector of the universe. He could do the two things what he enjoyed the most; fight and help others. While he had some opportunities on Earth to do the same, the two lives were way too different. Before he could answer, Chichi grabbed his hand and said:

"You don't want to go back, do you?"

"I want to wish back Earth and all the people and also those few survivors who are working on the colonies, but…"

"I understand."

Goku looked at his wives like he couldn't believe his ears. He expected her to shout, swear, threw something at him and demand to go back, yet she seemed like she already knew his answer, even before he himself realised that he wanted to stay.

"You do?"

"Yes. Sure, when I married you I had no idea that you are a saiyan, but I was well aware, that I'm marrying a fighter. Truthfully, I have the feeling that if we stayed on Earth, you would have eventually just left me. Not permanently, just from time to time."

"Chichi, I would never leave you!" Goku smiled, scratching the back of his head feeling a bit awkward.

"I certainly hope so." She smiled and kissed him.

Since they moved into the royal chambers and she was treated with some respect, she also began to like the place as unlikely as it seemed. The next morning before Goku left to get Krillin and Piccolo, Chichi said:

"We can stay, but once Earth is restored Gohan has to take his education seriously. Maybe we can even find a way to let him study on Earth while we live here."

"Sure, he can study." Goku nodded, before he left.

Bulma was making the final check on the spaceship to make sure everything was ok, while some of the saiyans loaded the spaceship with the necessary supplies.

"We will miss you from our card-playing" Nappa said, as he put down one of the last boxes.

"And you promised to teach us how to play Activity!" Cumber smiled.

While she was unwilling to accept Goku and the fact that he became one of the bests, she respected Bulma for her knowledge. She also liked all the human games she taught them, like pool, roulette, rex and she just loved the bowling court what she recently built. By now the blue haired woman was well-known, even among the higher ranking saiyans and almost every afternoon at least a couple of them spent time in her lab, playing some kind of game; having fun. Bulma was quite happy that she proved her point and every saiyan managed to find at least one game what he/she enjoyed.

"Well, I'm done, the ship is loaded and we still have like 2-3 hours until Goku will be back. What about that Activity now?" Bulma asked smiling.

"Sure!" Cumber nodded.

When Vegeta walked into the lab, a very unexpected sight welcomed him. Bulma, Cumber, Radditz, Karris and Mato sitting before a white board, on which Nappa was drawing something what looked like two stick figures fighting (?) and some hearts.

"Everything is fair in love and war?" Cumber asked, but when Nappa shook his head, she cursed.

"Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?" Radditz guessed.

Again, Nappa shook his head and he began to draw again like a fanatic. This time it was again two stick figures on top of each other on a bed (?). It was hard to tell as Nappa was terrible in drawing.

"Make love not war!" Karris shouted and when Nappa nodded, he cheered.

"How the hell do you call that sex?" Mato asked, looking at the board. "I mean best case scenario the one on the top is strangling the other. Or are you into that kind of stuff?"

"No!" Nappa shouted blushing.

"Ok, it's my turn" Karris said and stood up, picking up a card from the deck.

He stretched then he began to show sings to let the others know what was written in the card. He mimicked a man with a backpack on his back, climbing something.

"Bad news travels fast!" Nappa shouted.

Karris shook his head grinning and Bulma turned to Nappa:

"Come on, he just began to do it! Be more patient!"

Karris continued to do the same movement again and Radditz asked:

"Journey?"

When Karris nodded, he smiled proudly and watched him show the next words. Finally what seemed like hours of guessing, Mato finally got it:

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!"

"Hey Vegeta!" Bulma said, when she realised the king was watching them.

The other saiyans quickly sprung up and bowed to him. Vegeta indicated them to relax and asked:

"What the hell are you all doing?"

He realised that at the first part of the game the others had to guess what Nappa was drawing and at the second part they had to guess what Karris was showing, but he just couldn't understand what the point in all was. Why were they just not telling it in the first place?

"It's an Earth game called Activity" Bulma began and explained really short what the game was about.

"I still don't get how that is fun" Vegeta said and while he saw that the others were clearly enjoying themselves, he couldn't see why.

"Just join us and you will see!" Bulma offered, earning a shocked look not just from the king, but from the rest of the saiyans as well.

While even the elite and 1st class saiyans mingled with lower levels, the king was never the "social type". Sure, before Bulma, the saiyans never really did much activity together apart from fighting, training and hunting, but even in those the King never participated. On rare occasions Vegeta trained with his elite fighters and since Goku become one of them it was not that rare any more, still he wasn't just spending time with the others.

"I'm the King, I don't have time to fool around!" He snapped.

"Give it a try and if you still think it's bullshit after 20 minutes, you are free to go!" Bulma pressed.

To the others biggest surprise Vegeta agreed and joined them. Karris was the first who regained himself and asked Radditz to draw the next card. Truthfully, Vegeta had no idea why he joined at all. Bulma was making him entirely crazy. Suddenly he remembered how he heard complaints about his father when he was king, stating that he was too distant toward his people. Vegeta thought kings are supposed to be distant as they were the highest ranking warriors and the most powerful as well. Slowly he was lost in the game and he sort of began to see why it was entertaining. When it was his turn he stepped to the deck with a sigh, then grabbed a pen as he was supposed to draw. After realising that he never really draw before (saiyans didn't had any kind of artists between them and all the sculptures and paintings were done by other races) he drawn the first line, then the second until he finally finished it.

"Dog!" Radditz and Nappa called instantly and Vegeta nodded.

He continued his drawing, making an another dog with an arm in the it's hand, connected to a man who was clearly in pain. Finally he crossed the picture with an X.

"Barking dogs seldom bite!" Nappa called and while Vegeta sit back down, Bulma asked:

"Wow, since when are you so good in drawing?"

"Good?" Vegeta asked, looking back at the picture.

Unlike Nappa's stick figures, it was a pretty close match to reality, even though he only sketched it within second.

"It's pretty rare that somebody has such a talent, at least among humans. But I guess it's the same among saiyans, as I have seen all of the others and while Nappa is clearly the worst, the others aren't much more talented."

"I'm the King, I'm good at everything" Vegeta shrugged, causing Bulma to laugh.

When Goku arrived an hour later he was almost as shocked as Vegeta, when he saw the others playing Activity. Actually he was more astonished when he realised that Vegeta was among them. Sure, while the others were simply shouting in their guesses, he remained cool, still, he was playing!

"Hey guys!" Goku said, when Bulma finally won the round.

"Hi!" Bulma said and as she looked at Piccolo and Krillin behind the saiyan, she jumped up and gave Krillin a hug.

By now Vegeta was more or less used to the fact that hugs didn't quite mean the same thing among humans as it meant among saiyans. Saiyans never hugged anybody, unless it was their mate, while humans hugged their "friends" as well. It took him years to understand what friendship meant as it was also not common among saiyans. They had companionships at best.

"I guess it's also good to see you" Bulma looked at Piccolo after she let go of Krillin.

Piccolo slightly nodded, but there was no other indication that he even heard her. Goku picked up Gohan, while Bulma said her goodbyes.

"Take care!" Karris said.

Bulma nodded and only risked a quick glance at the king. He was standing among the other saiyans, with his arms crossed on his chest, with an unreadable face. She sighed, thinking how a good-bye kiss would have been nice but she knew pretty well, that Vegeta wasn't the type of guy who would do that, especially not in front of the others. She made the last checks outside the spaceship and she was just about to step on board, when somebody grabbed her hand and pulled her behind some huge barrels.

"You scared me!" Bulma cried out, when she became conscious that it was Vegeta.

Instead of saying anything, Vegeta simply hugged her and held her without saying a word. What could he say anyway? He barely had any idea, why he was coming here in the first place. Bulma smiled and hugged him back, enjoying the closeness and his scent. Slowly Vegeta pulled back and left, without saying a word. Bulma sighed, then boarded the ship, ready to go to Namek.

"How long will it take to get there?" Krillin asked.

"2 days" Bulma answered and the spaceship started and left the orbit of Planet Vegeta.

Around the same time Freeza's troops attacked several planets which were among the protected planets of the saiyans so almost every fighter was out. Even Vegeta went along with Goku to Yardrat, where an extra strong and big army was reported. Even for the two strongest fighters it took almost a day until they cleared out the planet and as they sustained several injuries, they spent hours in the healing tank. Just when they emerged from it and got dressed Nappa stepped into the room saying:

"Bulma is on the phone and wants to talk with either of you."

Vegeta indicated Nappa to out her on speaker and asked:

"What?"

"We just arrived at Namek and the others told me that there is somebody really strong here" Bulma said, sounding nervous.

"I think it might be Freeza" Gohan called. "I have never felt such an enormous Ki before."

"Freeza?!" Goku and Vegeta asked at the same time.

"We haven't actually seen him yet, but it's clearly an evil Ki" Krillin added.

"Why can't you come back?" Vegeta asked.

"Actually" Gohan began "we sort of landed next to two soldiers and one of them hit the ship and it's sort of broken.

"Bulma, can't you just fix it?" The king asked.

"I could, but it would take at least a day. We cannot stay here, with two dead soldiers lying around" She explained.

"Just stay put, try not to get spotted and I will come for you!" Goku called.

"That might be easier said than done, this planet is full of his soldiers" Gohan sighed.

When they put down the phone Vegeta said:

"Let's go!"

"Are you also coming?" Goku asked not expecting him to join.

"I cannot let you fight Freeza on your own, can I? Vegeta smirked. "I want to be the one who eliminates him."

The younger saiyan nodded and soon they left the planet and flew toward Namek. All the elite and first-class fighters were out on missions so nobody else could join them. While there were some middle and 3rd class saiyans on the planet, it was unlikely that they would have been any help at all against Freeza, hence they were on their own. They took the new prototype of a battleship, which was the quickest of all, but it was so new that the mass-production never began. It was shaped like the small saiyan battleships, but it was bigger, able to hold at least 5-6 people. It also had a gravity chamber and it was equipped with kitchen, bathroom and sleeping chamber as well. Bulma planned to install a healing tank as well, but she didn't have the time yet, so the "medical room" was almost empty at the moment.


	12. Chapter 12

**Thank you so much for the reviews! It also means a lot, because English is not my native language, so at times I find it challenging to write the story, though since my first fic, I feel I improved somewhat. This week I also published an another one-shot, in case you haven't seen it yet, check it out!**

Gohan and the rest found a cave nearby, where Bulma put up a small house. It was a tiring task to move on the terrain not using Ki, in order to avoid any detection. Also, Bulma was slowing them down a bit as she was no fighter, but she was still very satisfied with her endurance as her old self on Earth would have collapsed kilometres ago. It seemed that adjusting to Planet Vegeta's gravity had its own benefits. First, Krillin looked around and when he was sure the cave was empty, they went inside and tried to figure out what to do next. While hiding until Goku arrived was an option, it had its risks. From one side they could be detected in the meantime and for the other side; they had no idea why Freeza was on Namek. They concentrated on the Ki's and detected around 10 soldiers apart from Freeza. Some of them where with the tyrant, some shattered on the planet, most probably trying to find something.

"Somehow we need to find out why Freeza is here" Krillin said, looking at the others.

"I have a feeling, he is here for the Dragon Balls" Piccolo called.

"No, he just cannot get them!" Gohan cried out angrily.

"I will check on Freeza" Piccolo stated. "You two go and find at least one of the Dragon Balls, so regardless what Freeza wants, he wouldn't get them all!"

"Bulma, do you have the radar?" Krillin asked.

"Sure I have, but you want to leave me here, all alone?"

"It's not like we have a choice."

"I'm a woman and not a fighter! What if somebody finds me here?"

"It's safe enough and we will be back as soon as we can."

"There is no time for chit-chat, let's go!" Piccolo commanded and the 3 fighters left.

While Piccolo flew west to Freeza's direction, Krillin and Gohan flew south to the nearest Dragon Ball. As they checked the radar, it was clear that Freeza already had 3 of them and was heading for the 4th. When Piccolo was relatively near to Freeza, he landed and covered the remaining distance on foot, to avoid the detection of his Ki. It felt more than strange to set foot on his home planet, a planet what he never saw before and where Kami also only spent a couple of years as a child. He had not many memories of the place or its inhabitants. When he stopped at a top of a rock and observed the environment lying on his stomach, it was shocking to see his folk at the first time. They were gathered in the middle of their village, clearly frightened. With his ears he could exactly hear what they talked about and he located Freeza with ease. He had two soldiers by his side, one who was similar to Zarbon just with lighter green skin and one who looked like a chimera made from a dragon and a dog. There were 3 other soldiers, who had guns in their hands. When Freeza threatened to kill the two Namek children, the elder was willing to give him the Dragon Ball, still, just for fun Freeza himself killed off one of the children. Piccolo had to restrain himself not to launch an attack against them and he smashed a rock, where his hand was. This caused some stones to fall from the hill and one of Freeza's soldier looked at his direction. He cursed, concentrating to remain calm and control his Ki. He heard how the soldier checked his scouter and informed Freeza that it must have been just some wild animal. Though they were far away, Piccolo saw that these Dragon Balls were much bigger, than the ones on Earth.

"Kill them all!" Freeza grinned, pointing at the Namekians.

As the soldiers began to obey, an enormous Ki appeared from the East and Piccolo saw a young Namekian who was without any doubt a fighter. Freeza looked amused at the new fighter, he wasn't the first Namekian, who was trying to stop him. He turned on his scouter to check the power level of the fighter and while doing so, the Namekian began to raise his Ki.

"It might be an interesting fight after all" Freeza smiled, once the scooter detonated.

He looked at his other soldiers and gave out the order:

"You can play with the others, but this is mine!"

The soldiers nodded and turned towards the remaining 5 Namekians. When the first of them launched his attach to kill the Elder of the village, an another stepped in front of him to shield him with his body and he died instantly. That's when Piccolo lost it; he just couldn't stay there and watch, doing nothing. He instantly arrived and killed one of the soldiers, before anybody could even see that he was there.

"Please, take them out of here!" Nail said to Piccolo, not even bothering to ask who he was and what was he doing here.

Piccolo grunted; he wasn't the type who took orders, but there was no time to argue as Freeza's soldiers attacked him. He killed the remaining 3 with ease, until only the one who looked like Zarbon remained. The 4 Namekians had no idea who Piccolo was and how it was possible at all, that he was so powerful.

"Let's find an another place where we can fight without any disturbance!" Freeza said and flew off.

Nail looked at the others, then at Piccolo, finally he decided to trust him and he followed Freeza. While Piccolo fought, he thought that it was indeed useful to occasionally spar with Goku. While the saiyan visited the planet to learn from Gaa, he offered him to train. First, he was not even willing to consider it, but later he realised if they want to get away from the saiyans, he had to spar with Goku, regardless how much he hated him. While merging with Kami meant that his powers increased a lot, as a slave he had less time to train than ever. Although he defeated the last soldier as well, he injured himself more than it was acceptable.

"Thank you so much for saving our lives!" Dende bowed and stepped closer.

Piccolo threw a doubtful look, not entirely sure what to expect. Dende stepped even closer and placed his hands near to Piccolo's body. Before he knew what was happening, he felt something warm and the pain subdued in his body, until he couldn't feel it any more.

"What did you do?" Piccolo asked.

"I healed you!" Dende explained.

"Who are you exactly?" Moori, the Elder of the village asked. "I have never seen you there, but you are a Namekian."

"I was sent to Earth when I was little" Piccolo began and he told them what he knew about his past.

"I remember the Grand Elder told me something about a kid, who was sent to another planet." Moori nodded. "But as he never heard from you and your spaceship couldn't be located, he assumed you never arrived to your destination."

Piccolo had no idea what to do. He wanted to go after Freeza and Nail, but he just couldn't leave the Namekians alone.

"Seriously?" Bulma asked, when Piccolo went back to the cave with the remaining 4 Namekians.

"You said you don't want to be alone" Piccolo snapped.

"Well, yeah…" Bulma sighed.

Truth was, she still had no idea what to think about Piccolo and seeing 4 other Piccolos was just not that encouraging at the moment.

In the meanwhile Krillin and Gohan arrived to their destinations, which was the lookout of the Grand Elder.

"Come inside, I was already waiting for you!" the old Namekian said.

Gohan and Krillin looked at each other, then decided to go inside. When they saw the Grand Elder, they had no idea what to say. He looked just like Piccolo, apart from the fact that he was huge. They were more shocked when the Elder revealed that he knew why they were here and he handed them over the Dragon Ball.

"Wow, it's huge!" Krillin called.

"Isn't this the same what we had on Earth?" Gohan asked, looking at the ball.

"It does look the same, but it's at least 10 times so big" Krillin explained as he studied the ball further.

"I can sense that you have a truly amazing hidden power, come here!" The Elder looked at Gohan.

Gohan wasn't sure what to do, but his instincts told him that he can trust the Namekian and so he obeyed. The Elder placed a hand on his head and suddenly Gohan felt a big rush of energy coming from his body. He felt like his Ki was 10 times higher than ever before. Krillin felt the same as the Elder repeated the process with him. They thanked him and flew toward the cave to hide the Dragon Ball from Freeza. The arrived shortly after Piccolo and when they exchanged stories, all of them sit in silence, trying to figure out what to do next.

"The Namekian is losing" Krillin called, as he, Gohan and Piccolo followed the fight between Freeza and Nail, checking their Ki's.

"We need to help him!" Gohan cried out, when Nail's Ki dropped dramatically.

"I know I'm mad for agreeing, but let's go!" Krillin nodded and before Bulma could object, they left alongside with Piccolo.

Goku and Vegeta waited impatiently for their spaceship to arrive to Namek. This 24 hours seemed like an extremely long time. When they finally landed, it was easy to locate Freeza, as his Ki fluctuated so high, what they never felt before. The two saiyan looked at each other, then Goku said:

"It would be quicker to teleport there, grab me!"

"I'm not touching you!"

"Vegeta, we don't have time for this! Anyhow I wanted you to come along with me to Yardrat to learn this technique together, but you said no" Goku sighed, then grabbed the King and the next moment they were in front of Freeza.

"What the…" Freeza began, who was just about to throw an energy ball at Piccolo.

"Dad!" Gohan called out and flew to them.

Vegeta looked around, observing the damage on the terrain. It was like a good part of the surface was missing, he could see craters everywhere. As he looked at the 3 fighters, he saw that all 3 of them severely injured, with their Ki's low. As for Freeza, he looked other, not like when he was trying to destroy Planet Vegeta. The rumours were true as it seemed; he had more than one form and he was in his final, 4th form. The King had no idea, how the others managed to keep up with him at all, forcing him to change. Goku was asking the same question, when he realised that something was different in Piccolo's Ki; like he fused with somebody. Since he merged with Kami, his powers increased a lot, but now it was way beyond anything what he could have imaged. Yet, he was beaten-up and apparently he couldn't keep up with Freeza.

"Just who the hell are you?" Freeza asked, looking at the two saiyans.

"I'm Vegeta, the King of all saiyans!" Vegeta shouted, looking at Freeza like he wanted to kill him with his eyes.

"Hi, I'm Goku" the younger saiyan grinned.

"Ah Vegeta… I remember killing you father. And I didn't even need to change at all to do that. He was a pathetic excuse of a fighter!" Freeza grinned.

"How dare you?!" Vegeta shouted, then he lashed out and began to attack him.

Finally he could take revenge for his father and finally he might have a chance to end the war, what was dragging out for more than 25 years now. Too long for his taste.

"What exactly happened here?" Goku asked, stepping to his friends, while keeping an eye on the fight.

"When we arrived we knew straight away that Freeza must be here" Krillin began.

"Wait, let me just read your mind!" Goku smiled, putting a hand on Krillin's head.

Before Krillin could say anything Goku was already reading his mind. While Krillin only saw some images from his last day, Goku lived through it, like ha was also there. He saw when Krillin, Gohan and Piccolo found Freeza standing by Nails beat-up body, how Gohan and Krillin took up the fight, while Piccolo merged with Nail. Then he took on Freeza who was forced to change 3 times, until he reached his final form. It was a brutal fight. Even with Piccolo's new power, they were unable to defeat him. They kept up with him quite good until he reached the final form, but then even fighting 3 against one, they were too weak. Still, it was shocking seeing Gohan fight. Sure, he participated in some battles, but none of them were as serious as this and he behaved like a true saiyan.

"I'm proud of you, son!" Goku stepped to Gohan and put his hand on his shoulder, smiling.

"You know everything?" Gohan asked shocked.

"Like if I was there" Goku nodded, then all 4 of them looked over to see Vegeta fighting Freeza.

"We should get the Dragon Balls" Krillin said. "They were left in the village where Piccolo saved the Namekians. I mean we still want to have our wish, right?"

"Yes, of course" Goku nodded. "How many have you gathered?

"Freeza got 4 and we got 1, but there are still some soldiers alive and I think they went for the remaining 2."

"Do you think you can defeat them?"

"Of course we can, we managed to hold off Freeza for a while as well."

"Yeah, like you had so big part in that" Piccolo grunted.

Goku looked at him a smiled, while Krillin blushed.

"We might need one of the Nakemians as well" Krillin said. "Moori mentioned something about the dragon, like he only speaks Namekian or that sort of thing."

"I can go back to the cave" Gohan offered.

"Somebody should stay here, just in case" Krillin stated.

Finally they agreed that Piccolo will get the remaining Dragon Balls, Gohan will get one of the Namekians and they will meet up somewhere in between. Krillin remained there, watching the fight with his friend.

At first Vegeta though they were evenly matched, until the point, when Freeza told him he was only using half of his real power. If that was true, Vegeta had no chance against him, as he could barely keep up with him as he was. As he took a powerful hit crashing into the rocks and when he flew up back to the air, he realised that Goku was already there.

"I don't need your help Kakarott!" The king snapped, spitting out some blood from his mouth.

"I think you do. I'm not even sure that we can take him together" Goku muttered.

"You…" Freeza began looking at Goku. "You are the one who lead the saiyans to attack me on the day I wanted to destroy your planet!"

"That was my father" Goku answered.

"I thought you are him. Anyhow, after I defeat you two, I will go back to your planet and end this war once and for all! How dare you put up a fight with me, not just for your own colonies, but for other planets as well?!"

"How can you be so cruel to destroy entire races?" Goku asked.

"Are you seriously asking me that question?" Freeza smirked. "I mean saiyans are no different than me. Oh well, they are weaker, but you were destroying planets even before I arrived to your home."

"I'm nothing like you! I was raised on Earth!" Goku answered.

"That's enough!" Vegeta cried out and launched his attack against Freeza.

Goku wanted to help, but the older saiyan refused it and so he just watched the fight for a while. It was clear that Vegeta was losing and he felt, that Freeza was still holding back. When Freeza held Vegeta up with his tail and began to hit him in his back, Goku couldn't resist any longer and he attacked the tyrant. Vegeta fell to the ground and while he desperately tried to get up, he only managed to get into a sitting position; he was too wounded to do more. He cursed, outraged by the fact that he once again failed to be strong enough. As he looked at the fight between Goku and Freeza, he had mixed feelings. Sure, from one side he wanted him to win, to kill the monster, who tried to destroy their entire race, yet on the other hand, it wounded his pride to see somebody else who was able to keep up with Freeza. He looked at the fight carefully, detecting how the other saiyan was using those alien techniques, learned from the other races, like doubling his power and/or speed for seconds or the newest one; instant teleportation. He still stick to his point, not to ask for help, especially from weaker races, even though in the last months the younger saiyan invited him as well, when he went out to learn new techniques from their allies. Everything Vegeta accomplished, he accomplished alone, depending only on his owns skills and experience, while Goku was never shy to learn from others. Until this fight the king still assumed he was stronger, but seeing the fight in front of him, he began to doubt it. How? How could a low class warrior obtain such strengths? Sure, Bardock was good, but not nearly as good as his second son. He remembered the conversation he had with his father about the super saiyan, the legendary warrior, what only seemed a myth. Even when he was willing to believe it, he always assumed, it will be he, who reaches that level as it was logical, he was the king, an elite, royal blood! While Goku managed to land some of his attacks and Vegeta also wounded him previously, Freeza still seemed rather amused, convinced that he was stronger.

"You two monkeys should fight together, I'm bored!" Freeza called, when Goku crashed into the Earth and was trying to get up.

At this moment the sky darkened and Goku knew that Piccolo and Gohan finally managed to call the dragon and soon they will have their wishes. Freeza looked surprised by this sudden change, as far as he knew there was never night on Namek as it had 3 suns and one of them was always shinning.


	13. Chapter 13

**Just a short explanation regarding Piccolo's power level. While merging with Kami and Neil should make him more powerful as he is right now in this story, the reason why he is weaker is, that as a slave, he had hardly any time to train. Merging alone without training doesn't quite have the same impact. Remember that all he did in the cannon version was train.**

"Great!" Krillin smiled, also recognising the signs.

"Which one of you would like to die first?" Freeza asked, looking at the two saiyans who were on the ground.

Vegeta was finally able to get up, but just like Goku he was leaning against a rock for support. Suddenly Freeza raised his hand and hit Krilin with an energy beam.

"No, Freeza stop!" Goku called, watching as Krillin flew up higher and higher.

"Help me!" Krillin cried out, then he blow up leaving nothing behind apart from smoke.

While Freeza laughed, Goku began to shake from anger:

"I won't let you get away with this!"

Both Vegeta and Freeza looked at him surprised. While Freeza couldn't sense Ki, he could see that something was about to happen.

"I won't let you!" Goku cried out again.

Vegeta felt how Goku's Ki increased by every second with such a speed what he never thought possible. And it was higher, what he ever felt. Not even Freeza was so powerful. Suddenly Goku's hair began to change colours. First, it was blond just for a second, but then as his Ki busted, his look changed in an instance, his hair become blond and his eyes were blue. While his appearance changed, it was his look, what was the most intimidating. That piercing look filled with hate as he looked at Freeza… Vegeta has never seen such a look before and most certainly he never held Goku capable to have such a look at all.

"What now? Saiyans transform into Apes, but this is completely different from anything I have ever seen before. Darn, what does this mean?" Freeza asked.

"You just don't know when to stop, do you?" Goku asked back, teleporting before him and grabbing his hand with an iron tight grip.

Freeza tried to free his hand, but couldn't and he cried out in pain as his bones crushed. Then the saiyan kicked him into his stomach and he fly with enormous speed, hitting a smaller hill and destroying it almost entirely with the impact. While Freeza was clearly cornered, Vegeta looked at the fight and he had to punch himself to make sure he was not dreaming. It was beyond doubt that the legend was true, Goku became the super saiyan. But how? And why? Why he of all the saiyans? His fighting style also changed, now he fought like he indeed wanted to destroy his enemy, not just defeat it. There was so much rage in his eyes, that the king hardly recognised the man before him. Now Freeza wasn't holding back, he needed every bit of his power to keep up with his enemy. It was a fight, nothing like any other in the history. The king was too taken aback by it, to realise that the younger saiyan was slowly losing his grip. He fired a Kamehameha to Freeza, who blocked it with his own energy beam, then they tried to overpower the other. Suddenly Freeza had a better idea, he jumped away from the attack and hit Goku in his stomach, then flew up with him, just to crash with him into the ground. He flew so deep into the ground that lava erupted, engulfing Goku. As Freeza flew up, he erupted to a cruel almost hysterical laugher:

"Not even a super saiyan proved to be powerful enough to destroy me! I'm invincible!"

As Vegeta looked up at him, he lost his willpower to remain standing; he collapsed and remained sitting on his heels. He knew too well that it was a matter of seconds before the lizard will come for him and kill him. Surely after that he will keep his promise and destroy Planet Vegeta, like he intended to do it more than 20 years ago. The king hit the ground with his hands and cried out of anger. He began to shake, thinking about losing everything. He will die and with him his whole race will die as well, as nobody is powerful enough to protect the planet.

"I will blow up this whole planet!" Freeza cried out and threw an energy ball into the ground, which began to make its way towards the core of the planet to make it explode. "I don't need the stupid Dragon Balls anyway, I'm the most powerful creature in the universe even without them."

As the king heard him laugh, his rage just increased and he felt like he will explode. His Ki increased dramatically and he felt like his body was on fire. Every fibre in his body burned and he never felt so much pain before. He was sure that he will simply explode, even before Freeza has a chance to kill him. He was the King of the warrior race, he should have been the one to become a super saiyan. Yet a third-class fool, who was nothing like a saiyan, achieved it instead of him, yet even so they failed. It seemed like Bardock only managed to prolong their life's, but saiyans had their own fate, a fate what couldn't be changed; they had to die. They will all die, the most powerful warrior race is unable to stop Freeza. He, he king of his race failed to protect his people… No! They cannot die, he cannot die! He felt how his Ki increased even more, but instead of exploding, he also changed. His hair become blond and his eyes were blue; Vegeta also turned into a super saiyan.

"You!" Freeza called, looking at the king. "Going blond won't change anything. It never did much use for your comrade either!" He laughed.

Vegeta launched his attack against the tyrant, while he subconsciously registered, that he never felt such a rage before, neither thought he that it was possible to have such a feeling at all. He launched himself toward Freeza and attacked him. Just when he felt he has the overhand, Freeza hit him with one of his beams and he fall towards the ground. At the last minute he was able to stop his speed somewhat, still his impact made a crater.

"Don't you dare to think that you defeated me!" Goku cried out and stepped next to Vegeta.

"Kakarott?" The king looked at him, unable to believe that he was still alive.

"Let's take him down together!"

Vegeta nodded and they launched their attacks together.

During that time Piccolo, Gohan and the 4 Namekians who were saved stood around Porunga, the Namekian dragon. They got so far to ask the dragon to create a copy of Earth, when the Grand Elder contacted them telepathically:

"Freeza will blow up the planet, we all have to get away from it!"

"What?" Piccolo asked, unable to believe his ears.

"Let me and Vegeta say here, we need to defeat Freeza" Goku barged into the conversation, while he fought against Freeza.

While he couldn't exactly discuss this with Vegeta, he was sure the King would agree with him. He wanted to make put an end to this once and for all.

"Father, no! You will die here!" Gohan objected.

"Don't worry about me, I will figure out a way to get off from this planet before it's destroyed!"

Dende, who made the first wish, looked at Piccolo for advice.

"You heard him; make a wish to teleport everybody to the new Earth, except for those two and Freeza.

As Dende spoke the words, Porunga's eye lighted up and one-by-one every remaining survivor on the planet got teleported to Earth.

"What is your third wish?" Porunga asked, when he himself also arrived at the newly created planet.

"Bring back everybody to life who were killed by the saiyans on Earth" Gohan said.

"Oh, that will be a problem" Moori interrupted. "Porunga can only revive one person per wish!"

"What?" Asked Piccolo and Gohan at the same time.

"I'm sorry, it's the way it was designed" Moori said.

"I know you will need to find a new planet, but can we use the last wish nevertheless?" Piccolo asked.

"Of course. Your friends saved our lives, we are indebted to you" The Grand elder said. "We can wait a year to relocate."

"Then first ask the dragon, to bring to this new Earths the souls of the people who were killed on Namek. Even if they were revived now, they would instantly die as they would resurrect at the planet they died. And there is no Namek any more" Piccolo said.

During that time Vegeta and Goku fought Freeza and they also fought against the time to make it off from the planet before it exploded. Fighting side by side provided to be the greatest weapon and they defeated Freeza with a final energy beam, what they fired at the same time.

"Now we have to get out of here" Goku said and he quickly explained to Vegeta that Piccolo and Gohan already made their wishes.

"Let's get to Freeza's ship!" Vegeta advised.

"Darn it, I cannot sense any life force at all, so I cannot use instant teleportation" Goku called.

They began to fly as quickly as they could and managed to get off just in time before the explosion. Though some meteorites hit their ship and they had to make an emergency landing on an unknown planet. It turned out, the planet was the next target of Freeza, so once their inhabitants learned that he was dead, they treated the two saiyans as heroes. Though they didn't quite had such an advanced technology, hence it took almost a months until they were able to repair Freeza's ship.

"Wow, so you guys really know how to possess somebody else's body?" Goku asked, as he tried to discover whether this race has something useful what he could learn.

He was standing before the workshop where their spaceship was taken and spoke with a man called Hermer. He looked almost like Dodoria and Vegeta couldn't help to feel that this race was somehow related to Freeza's ex-soldier. While Goku was talking and apparently making friends, he remained in the background, sitting under a tree, observing them from some distance.

"Yes, but it's extremely dangerous as your body will remain empty until you return to it." Hermer explained.

"Oh, so it's not a body switch, but a real possession?" Goku asked.

"Yes and the maximal amount of time is 10-15 minutes. It depends on how well you have mastered the techniques."

"Hey Vegeta, do you wanna learn this with me? Sounds useful" the younger saiyan asked.

Vegeta wanted to say no, he had every intention to turn down the offer, just like he turned it down before, yet fighting alongside with Goku somehow changed his view. Also in the previous week they constantly trained together to be able to turn to a super saiyan any time. They were not quite there yet, but their bodies needed some rest and that's how Goku got the idea in the first place to learn something else here. It wouldn't hurt to give it a try, right?

"Ok" he agreed, got up and walked to them.

They learned the basics in the remaining 3 weeks and finally, they travelled back to planet Vegeta. When they landed the saiyans run to their ship and cheered them on. Chichi and Gohan hugged Goku tightly, while explaining that the plan worked and there is a new Earth. Vegeta indicated the saiyans that they don't need to bow and he looked for Bulma. It hit him when he realised she was nowhere to be seen and it hit him that he was disappointed. Why? It's not like she was his mate and even if he had a mate, it's not like she would welcome him back with happiness. Yet, as he looked over to Goku and his family, it seemed nice. Nice? Really?! Was he totally losing his mind? Saiyans were not capable to love. Ok, Bardock and his mate were a bit different when she was still alive, but all the others treated them like they were stupid. No wonder their son ended up being soft… But was he really soft? Before the fight with Freeza, Vegeta would have answered with yes straight away, but… he has seen Goku as a super saiyan and the way he looked at Freeza and how he fought against him; that was purely a saiyan fighter. He changed after Freeza killed his best friend, he changed because cared. And why did he change? Because he was afraid to loose his people. Does that mean he was also capable to feel? Feel other than rage, hate, anger…?

"Sire" Bardock stepped to him, bringing the king back to the presence.

"What is it Bardock?"

"In case you are searching for Bulma…" Bardock began, but couldn't finish as Vegeta shouted:

"I'm not looking for her damn it! Why would I do that?!"

He felt how the other saiyans looked at him, but quickly looked away and pretended like nothing happened. Bardock couldn't repress a smile, despite the fact that Vegeta was looking at him.

"She told me to tell you that she went back to Earth."

"What?"

Vegeta was confused now. She told him that she wanted to stay. Though he told her that he cannot take her as a mate, although that was clearly what she desired. It was understandable that she wanted to go back, there was nothing keeping her here. Nothing… Vegeta was shocked how hard it hit him, it hurt to know that he won't be able to see her again. Damn, this pain wasn't even physical and it hurt just as much if not more.

"You can bring her back" Bardock said.

"While I most certainly have the power, I won't force her to come back" Vegeta answered and just then he knew it was the truth.

He… cared about her too much to force her to do anything. He already destroyed her home and forced her to be his slave for 5 years, that was more than enough. Bardock wasn't sure what to say. He had a good enough idea what was going in his king's head as he was in love with his first any only mate, despite being a saiyan. He doubted that any of the other saiyans noticed how they looked at each other. While Bulma and Vegeta always kept a safe distance when they were in public, he caught some of the glances what they exchanged. Yet, he just couldn't reveal to Vegeta, that he knew that he was in love. Sincerely he doubted that the king fully realised it himself, not to speak about accepting it.

"Sire, I don't think you need to force her" he finally said.

"What do you mean?"

Hell, it should have been Goku, who told him that. Apart from Bulma, he was the only one who dared to argue with him or say no. But his son just had no eyes for these things, even though he also loved his mate. In some perspective he was just like an overgrown child.

"I think she will come back, you just have to ask her!"

Vegeta was about to shout off Bardock's head, that he is the king and he won't _ask_ anybody, when it hit him that his advisor might be right. Bulma said that she wanted to stay… Without answering to Bardock, he stepped to Karris saying:

"Keep an eye on the things, I have to go to Earth!"

"Earth?" Goku stepped to them. "Let me come with you!"

"You are still my subject Kakarott and you have to remain here, with your own race!" Vegeta snapped.

"I will stay here, but not because you say so" Goku said then shoot out his tongue.

"How dare you?!" Vegeta shouted and turned into a super saiyan, with the full intention to beat Goku up, but he also turned and avoided his kick with ease.

They might have gone off and beat each other up, but the others gasped as they saw the two saiyans change.

"What is it?" Nappa asked.

"These Ki… it's impossible!" Karris said.

"Is the legend true?" Bardock wondered aloud.

Vegeta and Goku looked at the others' shocked faces and changed back.

"Oh yeah, during the fight with Freeza we reached the super saiyan level" Goku smiled sheepishly.

"Both of you?" Radditz asked. "But the legend says that there is only one super saiyan in every 1000 years.

"Seems like the legend is wrong" Vegeta smirked.

After some discussion the saiyans left, apart from Karris, Goku and Vegeta.

"So, are we going to Earth?" Goku looked at the king.

"Fine, you may come" Vegeta sighed, giving in.

"You are going to bring back her, aren't you?" Karris asked, when Vegeta was about to board his small spaceship.

Goku was already inside his and started the engine.

"Who?" Vegeta asked.

"Bulma of course! You see, we really miss her."

"What? Who do you mean when you say "we"?

"I think most of us. It's just not the same without her and she promised to teach us some other Earth games to have fun."

Vegeta looked at Karris like he has grown a second head. He had no idea that Bulma was so popular among the saiyans. Sure, he heard that some of them spent time in her lab playing cards, bowling and whatever stupid games she taught them and yeah, even he played Activity, but… The picture was just never clear until now. Still, what does it change?

"I will persuade her to come back" he answered, then also boarded the ship and left the planet.

It was more than strange when Goku set foot on Earth 4 hours after that. The planet was an exact copy to every last details. They landed in the garden of the Capsule Corp, so only a few seconds after they stepped out from their spaceships Piccolo came to see them with 3 other Namekians.

"Hey Piccolo!" Goku smiled, then looked over at the other Namekians and asked:

"How come you guys are also here?"

"Freeza blow up their planets, remember?" Bulma asked, stepping out of the house.

When she saw that Vegeta was also there, a bright smile spread on her face and she waved. Vegeta had a hard time keeping his stoic face as he simply wanted to get to her and hold her.

"Oh yeah" Goku answered.

"Don't just stand there, come inside!" Bulma said and led them to the living room, where they settled down.

Bulma explained to them what their 3 wishes was so far from the Namekian dragon and since Porunga couldn't revive more than 1 person per wish, they had a new Kami for Earth; Dende. Dende activated the Earthly dragon balls and with that they revived all the people who died when the saiyans came to Earth and they also revived the people who died on Namek.

"I was never really good in math, but isn't that two wishes?" Goku asked.

"I upgraded the dragon balls a bit and now Shenlong can fulfil two wishes" Dende explained.

"I see. Wow, that's cool!"

"Luckily a year on Namek is only 130 days on Earth, so we only need to wait 100 more days until their dragon balls are active again. Then the Namekians can wish to have a new planet and they can go home." Bulma said.

"Goku?" A familiar voice asked and as the saiyan looked to the direction he saw Yamcha, followed by Chaoz and Tien.

"Hello guys!" He smiled and run to them.

"Can we talk?" Vegeta asked looking at Bulma, then he added: "Privately"

"Sure" She nodded and led him to the lab.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Bulma jumped to the saiyan hugging him tightly:

"I was so worried and I'm so glad that you are alive!"

Vegeta wasn't prepared for this and he stumbled and had to take a step back to find his footing again. Before he could stop himself, he hugged her back, putting his head to her neck and breathed in her scent. He assumed she wasn't happy to see him, at least not really as she only smiled when they met. Again, when Bulma spoke he had the feeling she was reading his mind:

"You know how damn hard it was to restrain myself in front of the others? I mean knowing you, I figured you are not found of the "public display of affection"."

Vegeta had to smile as she was even mimicking his way of talking. He withdraw a bit so they could see each other.

"Why did you come here?" he asked and he was angry with himself for being afraid to hear her reply.

"Oh, I just wanted to grab some of my stuff and helped my parents to move. I figured you won't mind as you were not on the planet anyway. I wasn't planning to stay, unless you don't want me to come back with you."

"I want you to come back! I came here to bring you back!" the king answered.

She looked at him with her blue eyes, trying to find out his intentions. After several minutes of silence she asked:

"Why do you want me to come back?"

"Because you are my best scientist."

"Oh… I see" she signed and suddenly she looked very sad and disappointed.

Vegeta grinded his teeth and he was angry because he answered that and he was even angrier for the real answer. When he thought she was planning to stay and he lost her, it felt… bad. Now that she was willing to come back, he just couldn't state his reason.

"I…" he began, but couldn't finish it.

He had no idea what to say. Sure he knew what he wanted to say, but he couldn't say that, it was against saiyan traditions. Though it seemed like his body was not willing to accept those traditions as without meaning to, he stepped to her and kissed her. First, she tried to resist, but she gave in and they kissed passionately. He stoked her hair, while she put her arms around his neck. It felt so right, like they were destined to be together. When he stepped back, Bulma said:

"Can you tell me what was that, if I'm just your scientist?"

"You wanted it too" he answered.

"Well, yeah. I know what I want and I already told you that. But what is it that you want?"

That was it, Vegeta just couldn't resist any longer:

"I want you to be my mate!"

"And what about the saiyan traditions?" Bulma asked, taken aback by his answer.

"I'm the king, I can change the rules or at least break them" Vegeta smirked and he hungrily kissed her.

The majority of the saiyans had no issues with the fact, that Bulma became their new queen and since Vegeta was a super saiyan, none of them would dare to object anyhow. Most of them were just happy that the king finally choose a mate and waited for his heir to be born, making sure that the royal line continued. Thanks to the new technologies, Earth was only a few hours away by spaceship and with some training both Goku and Vegeta learned to use instant teleportation to cover that distance, as Vegeta finally agreed to learn some new alien techniques. A year later Trunks was born and half a year after that, Goten as well. Both demi-saiyans had an enormous Ki even as a baby and there remained no doubt in Vegeta, that human-saiyan combination proved to be an actual improvement in their powers. While the Kaioshins had their doubts regarding the saiyans and they considered destroying their planets with a meteorite (just like Kaio told the story to Goku in an alternative universe), after Freeza was eradicated, they realised that with the saiyans around, they had a whole race acting as the peace-keeper. There was no doubt that the previously bloodthirsty saiyans changed and they will be able to preserve peace across the whole universe.

**Thank you all for reading the story and again, thank you for the reviews! This is the end for this story. Just like most of the stories, it could be continued, but I felt like this is where I have to stop. For those who have not read my other stories, you might find those also interesting :) For those who read them; keep an eye out, I might come back with a new story!**


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